# Tony Petitti’s Playoff Pitch and an ACC Vibe Check | College Football

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 21 May 2026, 1 h 25 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/7091ed53-7ceb-4b36-b050-b4500148d45a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

In this episode, we react to Tony Petitti’s public push for a 24-team College Football Playoff and try to sort through what it actually means for the sport. Is expansion really about access, regular-season stakes, and rewarding more teams, or is it mostly about television inventory, conference leverage, and the ongoing ESPN vs. Fox tug-of-war? We also talk through why the SEC’s preference for 16 teams suddenly puts some fans in the strange position of... rooting for Greg Sankey. Then it’s time for an ACC vibe check, as we take a look at the conference before full preview season kicks into gear. Miami looks like the league’s clearest headliner, but after that, things get messy fast. We work through the conference’s biggest connective tissues, including offensive line questions, thin receiver rooms, quarterback uncertainty, Cal’s wide range of outcomes, Louisville’s favorable path, Georgia Tech’s possible regression, and whether Virginia Tech or NC State could turn into a surprise playoff-adjacent story. Also included: Slices 'N Steps in NYC, illegal-streaming hypotheticals, Chili’s corn nostalgia, and the beginning of what may become a fully realized ACC-as-abandoned-mall taxonomy. Subscribe to the newsletter for free: https://www.solidverbal.com/newsletter Timecodes: 0:00 - Intro & Slices 'N Steps in NYC 6:38 - Tony Petitti's 24-Team CFP Plan 31:07 - The Vibrant ACC Mall 38:00 - The Cal Factor 45:20 - The Case for Syracuse 52:07 - The Case Against Georgia Tech 59:48 - Miami's Heisman Elimination Game 1:07:49 - Virginia Tech's CFP Chances 1:12:41 - The Surprise Orange Julius 1:17:05 - Mapping Out The ACC Mall Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull.
[0:05] Speaker 2: For me, I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so
[0:08] Speaker 2: many players say, well, I want to be happy. You
[0:10] Speaker 2: want to be happy for a day at a state?
[0:13] Speaker 2: Is that? Whoo whoo?
[0:14] Speaker 1: And Dan and Tie.
[0:18] Speaker 2: Dan Rubinstein, welcome back to the show. My friend. We
[0:21] Speaker 2: just saw each other a few days ago. It's true
[0:24] Speaker 2: we had a good time, good brief time in New York.
[0:27] Speaker 2: As we I mean, I couldn't try and put any
[0:31] Speaker 2: sort of lipstick on, like strategizing for the fall, strategizing,
[0:37] Speaker 2: I don't know. We just stare at walls and basements
[0:39] Speaker 2: all day and it's good to see humans right that
[0:42] Speaker 2: we either work with or just each other. And it
[0:45] Speaker 2: was good to be in New York. It was it
[0:47] Speaker 2: was like summer in New York, which is very nice,
[0:49] Speaker 2: so that people were out and about. We ate very well.
[0:53] Speaker 2: I think I had six different pizzas you had five,
[0:57] Speaker 2: because I spent a little more time there.
[0:59] Speaker 1: People need to understand what's involved with this, and we
[1:03] Speaker 1: don't need to drag it on too long. But we
[1:05] Speaker 1: referred to it internally as slices and steps.
[1:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, steps and slices and slices and steps.
[1:12] Speaker 1: Correct and so this basically into this is like I
[1:16] Speaker 1: don't know the third or fourth year running now that
[1:17] Speaker 1: we've done something like this. Last year, my feet swelled
[1:19] Speaker 1: up like crazy because I didn't have the right shoes
[1:21] Speaker 1: on to be walking that much. But this year, I
[1:24] Speaker 1: came prepared. You came prepared with a new idea that
[1:27] Speaker 1: was able to sustain us through the entire process. We
[1:30] Speaker 1: definitely got our steps in, like fifteen thousand steps walking
[1:33] Speaker 1: around the city and visiting various pizza places that were
[1:37] Speaker 1: on your to do list.
[1:39] Speaker 2: We ended up doing twenty five thousand or close to
[1:41] Speaker 2: twenty five thousand the day we were together. I did
[1:43] Speaker 2: another I don't know, thirteen or fourteen the next day.
[1:47] Speaker 2: You know what, I actually thought we were going to
[1:48] Speaker 2: record a show because you told me you had your
[1:51] Speaker 2: your clip on microphones. I prepare a show and it's
[1:54] Speaker 2: I'm looking at my notes app right now my phone
[1:56] Speaker 2: as I hold it up on YouTube dot com, slash
[1:58] Speaker 2: at solid verbal subscribe if you're not already. I wrote
[2:02] Speaker 2: down here next step teams because we were taking the
[2:07] Speaker 2: steps that.
[2:08] Speaker 1: Would have been really we can do that on Thursday
[2:09] Speaker 1: for the bonus listen.
[2:11] Speaker 2: Next step teams and then walk before you run, right,
[2:16] Speaker 2: teams like last year Arizona walked, and perhaps Arizona's one
[2:19] Speaker 2: of those teams that walked last year runs this year,
[2:22] Speaker 2: and then other teams similarly looking to secure.
[2:28] Speaker 1: A slice of the pie.
[2:29] Speaker 2: Wow, look, it's pretty good, right. Why didn't you tell me?
[2:33] Speaker 1: You didn't even tell me that you had this. I
[2:35] Speaker 1: don't know.
[2:36] Speaker 2: I listen. You did not seem like you were into
[2:38] Speaker 2: the idea of recording a show, and then you were like,
[2:40] Speaker 2: I need to room my laptop. I'm like, well, I
[2:42] Speaker 2: don't even know if we can record a show of
[2:44] Speaker 2: ties not editing as the ability to edit and post.
[2:46] Speaker 2: And then I wrote down pete or college football as pizza,
[2:52] Speaker 2: and I like went through like deep analogies of like
[2:56] Speaker 2: it takes time to build flavor and you're layering, can't
[3:00] Speaker 2: You can't go too quickly, and if you do, if
[3:03] Speaker 2: you do go quickly, you need a lot of that
[3:05] Speaker 2: specific experience to know how to go quickly, like Kurt
[3:08] Speaker 2: Signetti had last year. This could have been today's episode.
[3:12] Speaker 2: The balance and care of both college football and pizza
[3:15] Speaker 2: making time and temperature quality ingredients. The toppings are flash.
[3:20] Speaker 2: It's all about the foundation of that doe and crust.
[3:25] Speaker 2: That the cheese may be the thing you see parentheses
[3:29] Speaker 2: the ball question mark, but it's really just the tip
[3:33] Speaker 2: of the spear man. I for about forty one minutes
[3:37] Speaker 2: on my American Airlines flight between O'Hara and LaGuardia, I was.
[3:42] Speaker 1: Operating cooking with gas Dan.
[3:46] Speaker 2: I was cooking, all right.
[3:48] Speaker 1: Well, put that somewhere all right in the vault so
[3:51] Speaker 1: that we can come back to it when we need
[3:53] Speaker 1: an episode, because Lord knows, we've got some time to
[3:56] Speaker 1: fill here before we let time in the previews and whatnot. Yeah,
[4:00] Speaker 1: let it first. Very good, very good, always on topic. Hello,
[4:03] Speaker 1: welcome back. I am ty he is Dan. Hit follow,
[4:06] Speaker 1: hit subscribe if you have yet to do so, if
[4:08] Speaker 1: you've done those things already because you like the show,
[4:11] Speaker 1: please do not hesitate to go on out there and
[4:13] Speaker 1: leave us a five star rating or a review wherever
[4:17] Speaker 1: you can. It doesn't affect the algorithm per se, but
[4:20] Speaker 1: it does encourage others that were not just to stooge
[4:24] Speaker 1: well we are two stooges, but that we have a
[4:26] Speaker 1: good show talking about college football. That might be entertaining
[4:30] Speaker 1: to some others out there who are in need of
[4:32] Speaker 1: a new college football podcast or just another Yeah podcast,
[4:36] Speaker 1: Dan RUBISTI, what do we got in store for today?
[4:39] Speaker 2: So? I first wanted to talk about the Big Ten meetings.
[4:43] Speaker 2: We've had SEC meetings going on, different conference and meetings
[4:46] Speaker 2: and other ACC has met and the Big Ten meetings
[4:50] Speaker 2: that the headline story there is Tony Petiti, Commissioner of
[4:54] Speaker 2: the Big Ten, sat for an extended period of time
[5:00] Speaker 2: answering questions and clarifying his and the conference's position as
[5:04] Speaker 2: it relates to the postseason for the first time where
[5:08] Speaker 2: it wasn't just like sources say, blah bah blah. This
[5:11] Speaker 2: is direct answers and clarifications. So I'd like to touch
[5:15] Speaker 2: on that for a moment. But also because it's still
[5:19] Speaker 2: May and we haven't done the ACC, I still have
[5:23] Speaker 2: so much.
[5:24] Speaker 1: I still have the sound.
[5:25] Speaker 2: I wanted to do a vibe check and do a
[5:28] Speaker 2: may CC just check in, man, you.
[5:31] Speaker 1: Got the pun gun work in this week.
[5:33] Speaker 2: I've got the it. Also, when I say MAYCC, I'm
[5:37] Speaker 2: reminded of a high school friend who had one impression
[5:41] Speaker 2: and one impression only, and that was the immortal Macy
[5:44] Speaker 2: Gray singing I try, do you remember that song? This
[5:49] Speaker 2: guy was not an impressionist. He was not even goofy.
[5:53] Speaker 2: He was not a class clown. But if somebody brought
[5:56] Speaker 2: up Macy Gray during this very specific time, it was
[5:59] Speaker 2: a like I try to say goodbye and I choke
[6:03] Speaker 2: ba stumble, and it was. Honestly, it was a pretty
[6:07] Speaker 2: pretty solid impression. And I want to do a MACC
[6:10] Speaker 2: vibe check and just check in. This is not an
[6:12] Speaker 2: ACC preview. This is merely how do we feel about
[6:15] Speaker 2: the AC as a whole and chunks of the ACC
[6:18] Speaker 2: as we are in May, just ahead of I guess
[6:21] Speaker 2: magazine preview seat magazine preview season. Yeah, ho spring, this
[6:26] Speaker 2: is late May. They're gonna start dropping in June. We
[6:29] Speaker 2: want to check in. That's all we're doing. We're checking
[6:31] Speaker 2: in on where the AC is, like, what teams may
[6:33] Speaker 2: have in common, what schedules may look like, come maybe
[6:36] Speaker 2: a couple of crucial matchups.
[6:38] Speaker 1: That's all.
[6:39] Speaker 2: Well, let's start with the TD stuff.
[6:41] Speaker 1: Okay, as you already mentioned and has been written about
[6:49] Speaker 1: nearly everywhere where you get your college football news, Tony Pettiti, Yes,
[6:53] Speaker 1: did do an extended Q and A session.
[6:57] Speaker 2: Did you ever see the Truman Show? Oh, I've seen
[6:59] Speaker 2: the Truman Show. Probably eleven times.
[7:01] Speaker 1: There's a scene in the Truman Show where they get
[7:04] Speaker 1: Ed Harris, who's like, you know, in charge of it all.
[7:07] Speaker 1: They get Ed Harris to sit down and talk about
[7:10] Speaker 1: what is coming up, what is in store, what they're
[7:12] Speaker 1: cooking up. I think for Jim Carrey aka Truman, and
[7:17] Speaker 1: the way they portray this interview, they talk it up
[7:22] Speaker 1: as if this is a rare glimpse into the minds
[7:25] Speaker 1: behind the show. It's clear to you as the viewer
[7:28] Speaker 1: that this is not something that happens often, so we
[7:31] Speaker 1: should cherish it. And it really cracked me up reading
[7:34] Speaker 1: through some of the headlines this morning, because the way
[7:37] Speaker 1: that The Athletic and ESPN in some other places wrote
[7:40] Speaker 1: up this availability, this media availability with Tony Patiti, it
[7:45] Speaker 1: had much the same tone. It was like a rare
[7:47] Speaker 1: occurrence that they finally get a chance to talk to
[7:50] Speaker 1: this guy, and at a really critical juncture in this offseason,
[7:55] Speaker 1: as we now find ourselves in this odd conversation about
[7:59] Speaker 1: whether or not they should expand from twelve all the
[8:02] Speaker 1: way up to twenty four teams in the College Football Playoff.
[8:05] Speaker 1: What is clear based on what Tony Patiti has said
[8:09] Speaker 1: here is that his position seemingly the position of other conferences,
[8:14] Speaker 1: basically everyone now outside of the SEC, is that they
[8:18] Speaker 1: should go up to twenty four if not twenty four
[8:22] Speaker 1: play and B is basically staying at twelve, right.
[8:27] Speaker 2: And we should be as specific as possible and try
[8:30] Speaker 2: to cut through as much of the implication as possible.
[8:35] Speaker 2: The SEC's position happens to be the same position as
[8:40] Speaker 2: ESPN and Disney.
[8:42] Speaker 1: Just right, a pure coincidence. I'm sure the.
[8:45] Speaker 2: Big Tennis position happens to be in the interest of
[8:50] Speaker 2: Fox and Fox Sports, okay, and is if we are
[8:55] Speaker 2: going to I think fairly bring into question how to
[9:00] Speaker 2: the degree to what degree ESPN is in bed with
[9:04] Speaker 2: the best interest of the SEC during playoff selection time,
[9:09] Speaker 2: We certainly and I think most fairly should do the
[9:13] Speaker 2: same thing when the Big ten is taking the position
[9:17] Speaker 2: of well, we need more access for teams and if
[9:21] Speaker 2: it happens to also mean more access for perhaps interested
[9:26] Speaker 2: television networks. He didn't mention r converse.
[9:29] Speaker 1: I did see included in Petiti's quotes, right, the word
[9:33] Speaker 1: inventory came up at least once, maybe a few more times.
[9:36] Speaker 1: So yes, there's already some thought around what this means
[9:40] Speaker 1: for partners and the business of the college football thing.
[9:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, right, And if you look at Tony Petiti's specific
[9:47] Speaker 2: background in the sports business sphere, it happens to be
[9:51] Speaker 2: along the lines of multimedia rights and television. So I
[9:57] Speaker 2: think the smartest thing at this point if you are
[9:59] Speaker 2: looking at at how the wheels are turning behind the scenes,
[10:03] Speaker 2: looking at college football as a cold war between ESPN
[10:07] Speaker 2: and Fox wouldn't be the worst starting point, right, whether
[10:11] Speaker 2: it's the postseason, whether it's realignment, whatever, that would not
[10:14] Speaker 2: be the worst starting point, especially we have a few
[10:16] Speaker 2: more years left before renegotiated rights. But this was in Taranea.
[10:23] Speaker 2: If you're not familiar, it's a luxury resort in southern
[10:26] Speaker 2: California where I think our friend Stu Mandel pointed out
[10:28] Speaker 2: one of the topics was the unsustainable spending, and it
[10:34] Speaker 2: was it's not a holiday and express now along the
[10:37] Speaker 2: cliffs of Rolling Hills, Estates, or we're at Palas Verdes,
[10:41] Speaker 2: the States, whatever it is in southern California where the
[10:43] Speaker 2: Big Ten chose to meet. And I'm reading here from
[10:48] Speaker 2: our friends Scott Doctorman's column, the willingness to make a
[10:51] Speaker 2: change and consider giving our championship game to to get
[10:54] Speaker 2: to the right postseason. I think our coaches and our
[10:56] Speaker 2: administrators understand that trade off. We feel very strongly about it.
[11:02] Speaker 2: A new structure, he's saying. And we're working really hard
[11:05] Speaker 2: with our colleagues and other conferences. Obviously the way this
[11:08] Speaker 2: is structured. We understand that the SEC and the Big
[11:10] Speaker 2: ten have to come to an agreement, and we're working
[11:13] Speaker 2: very hard to figure out ways to get to a solution.
[11:16] Speaker 2: But inside our league, there is a deep commitment to
[11:19] Speaker 2: twenty four and the access access.
[11:23] Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw.
[11:24] Speaker 2: PJ. Fleck was thrilled, absolutely loves the idea. Brett Bilama
[11:30] Speaker 2: very enthusiastic about it, said, you know, he's all for
[11:33] Speaker 2: jumbo expansion up to like thirty two. Joh, let's go
[11:36] Speaker 2: to sixty four. Why not put them all in?
[11:41] Speaker 1: Do these guys legit think that expanding the field is
[11:45] Speaker 1: going to give them some additional air cover with regard
[11:49] Speaker 1: to whether or not they get fired if they're underperforming.
[11:52] Speaker 2: Oh, it's a status thing. You're either a playoff team
[11:54] Speaker 2: or competing to be in the playoff and maybe just
[11:56] Speaker 2: miss the playoff or you don't. We're talking about teams
[11:59] Speaker 2: who have not really been in the playoff conversation in
[12:01] Speaker 2: ernest late in the season, if at all. So the
[12:05] Speaker 2: idea of access, it's easier to recruit because then you
[12:08] Speaker 2: can say, like, Okay, we're putting players on this big
[12:10] Speaker 2: stage here at Minnesota, here at Illinois, or in any conference,
[12:14] Speaker 2: any team whatever, if we're expanding to twenty four teams.
[12:17] Speaker 2: So if you're looking at it from a coaching perspective,
[12:21] Speaker 2: their investment is that it makes their job easier and
[12:25] Speaker 2: their job safer. Right, nobody's really nobody's looking at this
[12:29] Speaker 2: through the lens of like, what is a quality competitive
[12:33] Speaker 2: situation for the sport of college football. I know that's
[12:36] Speaker 2: just the lens. I've seen some.
[12:37] Speaker 1: People mention this online and it kind of cracks me up,
[12:41] Speaker 1: not because I disagree with what I'm reading, but since
[12:45] Speaker 1: they decided they want to go up to twelve, and
[12:48] Speaker 1: people who listen to the show, No, I'm on record
[12:51] Speaker 1: a million times talking about this, expanding it up to twelve,
[12:55] Speaker 1: even expanding it up to sixteen, I was like, the
[12:58] Speaker 1: new bar. The threshold for whether or not a coach
[13:02] Speaker 1: is performing is does he get his team to the playoff? Right?
[13:05] Speaker 2: That's it.
[13:06] Speaker 1: That's that's going to be the new thing, and so
[13:08] Speaker 1: obviously if you take it up to twenty four, it's
[13:10] Speaker 1: going to be easier to get into the playoffs. But
[13:11] Speaker 1: I also think that bar changes, and I think the
[13:14] Speaker 1: bar is less about getting into the playoffs, because if
[13:16] Speaker 1: you're a top twenty five caliber team, you're going to
[13:18] Speaker 1: be in. Per Scott and the reporting of others, Ohio
[13:21] Speaker 1: State would have been every every single year, Ohio State
[13:24] Speaker 1: would have been in this thing just based on the
[13:26] Speaker 1: way it's set up. The likes of Penn State would
[13:28] Speaker 1: have been in at least half of the years. I
[13:32] Speaker 1: just think the bar will change now, not just getting
[13:35] Speaker 1: to the playoff, but are you winning games in the playoff?
[13:37] Speaker 1: Are you actually performing once you get there, because it
[13:39] Speaker 1: is now much easier to qualify in the first place.
[13:43] Speaker 2: Right And that's that, you know, that's the something that
[13:46] Speaker 2: coaches and other sports face, that it's not just about
[13:49] Speaker 2: making the playoff. We've just saw NBA coaches get fired
[13:52] Speaker 2: with teams in the playoff. Sure we see that in
[13:56] Speaker 2: the NFL, We see that major League Baseball, right that like, yeah,
[13:58] Speaker 2: you've gotten us here, but then what have you done
[14:00] Speaker 2: since getting us here? And the argument from Tony Petiti
[14:03] Speaker 2: is that it actually enhances the regular season.
[14:06] Speaker 1: The argument is that it has tiared incentives, yes, which
[14:11] Speaker 1: means that teams at different levels of these standings would
[14:15] Speaker 1: still have something important to play for.
[14:17] Speaker 2: And he is.
[14:18] Speaker 1: Trying to make the case that almost nobody would be
[14:22] Speaker 1: quote safe late in the season. Right. I don't know
[14:26] Speaker 1: if I really agree with that. A couple so a
[14:29] Speaker 1: couple other things here that I wanted to mention, go ahead,
[14:31] Speaker 1: sorry to mean to cut you off.
[14:32] Speaker 2: Well, so this is where my brain went initially. Right,
[14:35] Speaker 2: that Fox has made an enormous investment in the Big Ten.
[14:40] Speaker 2: They have their pick of the biggest games week in
[14:43] Speaker 2: and week out. They have priority here. It is also
[14:47] Speaker 2: a commentary on whether or not Fox is getting a
[14:51] Speaker 2: good return on its investment, that they have all these
[14:55] Speaker 2: huge regular season games, but they're pushing for much more
[14:59] Speaker 2: invent story later on in the season that you're like, ooh,
[15:03] Speaker 2: maybe things aren't going super well for this investment for Fox,
[15:07] Speaker 2: that they need more or they feel, you know, it's
[15:09] Speaker 2: a competitive environment, they feel like they're getting pushed around
[15:12] Speaker 2: by ESPN, that the sport is viewed as an ESPN sport,
[15:16] Speaker 2: with Fox sort of only getting a big conference with
[15:19] Speaker 2: a little bit of big twelve in there and the
[15:22] Speaker 2: sec or excuse me that ESPN. You can understand how
[15:25] Speaker 2: it's tough to confuse those two. Hear you that ESPN
[15:30] Speaker 2: with the bigger flagship morning show before the game start
[15:33] Speaker 2: and the bigger personalities and everything that comes.
[15:35] Speaker 1: With this is this is where people drop off.
[15:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this is where people.
[15:41] Speaker 1: Are like, all right, you lost me. Are we going
[15:43] Speaker 1: to have twelve? Are we gonna have twenty four? No?
[15:45] Speaker 1: Because once you start talking about like the media ramifications,
[15:48] Speaker 1: I'm not saying you, I'm talking about him in general.
[15:50] Speaker 2: I know, I understand, I'm totally with you.
[15:52] Speaker 1: But people just want to watch football, you know, all
[15:55] Speaker 1: of the machinations behind the scenes and the money and
[15:58] Speaker 1: who's got the show and the bigger show, not the
[16:00] Speaker 1: bigger shell. I don't think people give a damn about that.
[16:03] Speaker 1: People just want the season to kind of feel like
[16:06] Speaker 1: the season they are used to growing up.
[16:10] Speaker 2: I agree, And it's it's another one of these situations
[16:13] Speaker 2: where the stakeholders who are being interviewed, in this case
[16:18] Speaker 2: cases that the coaches are being interviewed about how they
[16:21] Speaker 2: feel like, Yeah, of course the coaches are for it,
[16:24] Speaker 2: like I don't. I don't understand how that is a
[16:28] Speaker 2: worthwhile pursuit really to find out how coaches feel about this,
[16:32] Speaker 2: even though they are the most famous people. I guess
[16:35] Speaker 2: internally within the sport that there really is nobody speaking
[16:42] Speaker 2: on behalf of the people who watch the games. And
[16:47] Speaker 2: I understand that this is a business. I understand that,
[16:50] Speaker 2: you know, Tony Petiti is doing what's in the best
[16:51] Speaker 2: interest of his conference and saying with you know, Sankee
[16:54] Speaker 2: and the SEC and ESPN, Fox, blah blah blah. I
[16:59] Speaker 2: just feel like we are in the middle of a
[17:02] Speaker 2: wild corporate pr storm.
[17:04] Speaker 1: And love those those are great, aren't they?
[17:07] Speaker 2: A wild corporate pr storm? And only Ty hildenbrands as
[17:13] Speaker 2: the gall to speak up for like what it looks
[17:18] Speaker 2: like from the outside.
[17:19] Speaker 1: Well, look, I'm only Ty. I'm not the only one
[17:23] Speaker 1: like I sixteen I'd be cool with. I'd be cool
[17:26] Speaker 1: with sixteen. It sounds like the SEC would be cool
[17:28] Speaker 1: with sixteen two. But as Tony Batiti tells it here
[17:31] Speaker 1: in his Once in a Blue Moon press availability, apparently
[17:36] Speaker 1: there have been virtually no conversations internally on the Big
[17:40] Speaker 1: ten side about going to sixteen. It's basically either twenty
[17:43] Speaker 1: four or twelve. There was some initial conversation around while
[17:49] Speaker 1: if we start at sixteen, we'd be willing to do
[17:51] Speaker 1: that only if there is an understanding that will eventually
[17:54] Speaker 1: go up to twenty four. But it seems like that
[17:56] Speaker 1: has kind of fallen off a little bit. So a
[17:59] Speaker 1: few other details here that I did just want to mention.
[18:04] Speaker 1: I had been wondering about this for a while now.
[18:07] Speaker 1: What would it look like and how would it affect
[18:09] Speaker 1: things like conference championship week. So per his telling of this,
[18:14] Speaker 1: seeds one through eight would receive a first round by
[18:17] Speaker 1: Seeds one through eight would also receive a home game
[18:20] Speaker 1: after the buye. Tony Patiti said that the top two
[18:24] Speaker 1: seeds would receive quote the best path all the way through,
[18:30] Speaker 1: and as you might expect, finishing in the top eight
[18:33] Speaker 1: would be extremely valuable. As a result of this, Seeds
[18:38] Speaker 1: nine through sixteen would be obviously trying to climb up
[18:45] Speaker 1: into that one through eight range at season's end. Getting
[18:50] Speaker 1: into the eight to sixteen range, though, would earn a
[18:53] Speaker 1: home game, so the difference between being seed number sixteen
[18:57] Speaker 1: seed number seventeen could be rather significant. He also adds
[19:03] Speaker 1: that this would create a late season incentive beyond simply
[19:07] Speaker 1: making the field, i e. Earning that home game right,
[19:12] Speaker 1: and then the third tier would be what I guess
[19:14] Speaker 1: we would consider bubble teams. If you're seeded, you know,
[19:18] Speaker 1: seventeen through twenty four, you just need to find a
[19:22] Speaker 1: way to protect your spot. But TD said that teams
[19:27] Speaker 1: in that range would have to keep improving their resume
[19:30] Speaker 1: in the final week. And he's making the argument that
[19:33] Speaker 1: because teams could move up because they could lose a
[19:37] Speaker 1: home game, because it could gain a home game or
[19:40] Speaker 1: fall out or improve their path, resting their starters in
[19:43] Speaker 1: that sense wouldn't really make a whole lot of sense,
[19:45] Speaker 1: which I know is one of the other arguments against
[19:47] Speaker 1: this sort of expanded field. There is a lot to this, Okay,
[19:52] Speaker 1: much more so than I think we can get into here,
[19:54] Speaker 1: because at this point we're just reacting to an interview
[19:57] Speaker 1: that he did. But how that then affects things like
[20:01] Speaker 1: championship Week. It sounds like there's an openness to kind
[20:04] Speaker 1: of reimagine what championship week looks like. He did mention
[20:10] Speaker 1: again things like inventory and revenue and how much certain
[20:14] Speaker 1: schools and certain conferences could stand to lose as a
[20:17] Speaker 1: result of a reimagined championship week. I'm not necessarily going
[20:21] Speaker 1: to get into that here, but suffice to say there
[20:25] Speaker 1: was a lot of discussion around what this means for
[20:28] Speaker 1: the last week of the regular season. And again we
[20:31] Speaker 1: keep seeing the inventory word, which I did.
[20:34] Speaker 2: Right, which makes me think that which makes you We're
[20:37] Speaker 2: seeing a lot of buyers regret right from TV network
[20:41] Speaker 2: saying like, we've spent all this money and we're not
[20:43] Speaker 2: recouping it in a way that we thought we were
[20:45] Speaker 2: going to and we need more of an available availability
[20:50] Speaker 2: of inventory to you know, to try and make this
[20:54] Speaker 2: money back. And the competitive notion of more teams having
[20:58] Speaker 2: access later in the sea. And look, these guys are
[21:02] Speaker 2: being very transparent that they're looking for ways to generate
[21:06] Speaker 2: a maximum amount of revenue and talking about what they
[21:09] Speaker 2: would lose or gain with conference championships and added games.
[21:13] Speaker 2: And it's not great tie, it's I mean, you look
[21:16] Speaker 2: at where teams are, you look at last year, the
[21:19] Speaker 2: year before, you look at teams seventeen, twenty one, twenty three.
[21:25] Speaker 2: I can't say that there was a huge appetite from
[21:28] Speaker 2: my vantage point to see them take on the number
[21:31] Speaker 2: three team in the country and see what's what to
[21:34] Speaker 2: take on the number five teams take on the number
[21:35] Speaker 2: one team. Like it doesn't seem like people are saying
[21:39] Speaker 2: to themselves, Okay, great, now that we're through with rivalry week,
[21:44] Speaker 2: let's see what TCU can do against Ohio State. Right,
[21:48] Speaker 2: Let's get a look at Virginia against Notre Dame. Let's
[21:52] Speaker 2: get a look at Oregon and last year they had
[21:53] Speaker 2: to play James Madison, which I think is a terrific
[21:56] Speaker 2: thing for James Madison. That was sort of a quirk
[21:58] Speaker 2: of the year and this schedule. But let's see Oregon
[22:02] Speaker 2: against Houston. That's what we as a college football universe,
[22:07] Speaker 2: That's what we're here to see. And so I see
[22:11] Speaker 2: a lot of people comparing, including the people that run
[22:14] Speaker 2: these conferences, to comparing, you know, a potential twenty fourteen
[22:18] Speaker 2: playoff to the postseason and other sports and the access
[22:20] Speaker 2: that teams in other sports in Major League Baseball, which
[22:23] Speaker 2: is what Tony Petiti referenced, like the percentage of teams
[22:25] Speaker 2: who make the postseason. I can't stand when these guys
[22:29] Speaker 2: do this, Like college football isn't baseball, College football isn't
[22:32] Speaker 2: the Stanley Cup playoffs, The beauty of college football is
[22:35] Speaker 2: that it's college football. And so I just think the
[22:40] Speaker 2: overestimation of like, man, how great would it be if
[22:44] Speaker 2: we could see Georgia against twenty twenty five Michigan. You're like,
[22:49] Speaker 2: I guess Also it means that suddenly this new iteration
[22:52] Speaker 2: means the teams who actually earn it, which are you know,
[22:56] Speaker 2: your top eight, ten, twelve, whatever. However, the many teams
[22:59] Speaker 2: are clearly separating themselves from the pack have to then
[23:04] Speaker 2: earn it more than ever before. Right that they're they're
[23:08] Speaker 2: the ones being punished. It's how in the NBA they
[23:10] Speaker 2: talk about how the new salary structure actually caps the
[23:15] Speaker 2: best players and the best earners, and it rewards the
[23:18] Speaker 2: middle class more than the actual players who are at
[23:21] Speaker 2: the top of the sport. And I get those vibes
[23:24] Speaker 2: a little bit, like the big winner is PJ. Fleck, Like,
[23:28] Speaker 2: So that's what we're shaping our sport to reward the
[23:32] Speaker 2: like team that can go there's good enough to go
[23:35] Speaker 2: eight and four, nine and three and thus get an
[23:39] Speaker 2: invite into a system that in the however many decades
[23:43] Speaker 2: of this sport get they never would even come close
[23:46] Speaker 2: to sniffing an invite. So this is who we're truly rewarding.
[23:51] Speaker 1: Like, Okay, Pat Fitzgero's use Iowa as an example of
[23:55] Speaker 1: why they want an expanded field because they lost close
[23:58] Speaker 1: games to national champion Indiana as well as to Oregon.
[24:02] Speaker 2: Oregon.
[24:03] Speaker 1: Sure, they lost narrowly at Iowa State and USC they
[24:07] Speaker 1: won nine games by an average of over twenty points.
[24:11] Speaker 1: They beat a ten win Vanderbilt in the bowl game.
[24:14] Speaker 1: Fitzgerald said that Iowa played quote playoff level games and
[24:19] Speaker 1: that nobody would have wanted to face the Hawkeyes in
[24:21] Speaker 1: the playoff. I think that's BS personally, So okay, that's a.
[24:26] Speaker 2: But what are we saying with that point? Then we're
[24:27] Speaker 2: saying like this team played close games but couldn't figure
[24:31] Speaker 2: out how to win. Let's see if I agree with you.
[24:34] Speaker 1: I'm saying this is that we can throw this on
[24:37] Speaker 1: the pile of other things that galled me about Pat Fitzgerald, Right,
[24:41] Speaker 1: But I.
[24:41] Speaker 2: Just I don't buy that. Right, But they had the
[24:44] Speaker 2: opportunity to pull out those close games and earn their
[24:48] Speaker 2: way into a playoff. I'm not saying you're arguing otherwise, right.
[24:50] Speaker 2: What I'm saying is then we're just saying Iowa has
[24:53] Speaker 2: earned the right to lose more close games to quality teams.
[24:57] Speaker 2: That's what we want the sports to be. Like, I
[25:00] Speaker 2: just I don't know it. We're so far afield that,
[25:03] Speaker 2: like we feel compelled to reward the horseshoeization isn't horseshoes.
[25:09] Speaker 2: What they say close only counts in horseshoe and grenades.
[25:13] Speaker 2: Like they had their shot, they had their chance, they
[25:17] Speaker 2: gave it all they had, and they weren't there. They
[25:19] Speaker 2: also barely beat a like careening Penn State. Right, Yeah,
[25:23] Speaker 2: Like I just miss me with all of this. I
[25:26] Speaker 2: always say it wasn't all that special last year and
[25:29] Speaker 2: they lost to them. I don't know if you want
[25:31] Speaker 2: to go to the playoff, win more games, we like wins.
[25:35] Speaker 1: The email is Saliverbadgmail dot com. As always, we'd love
[25:38] Speaker 1: to hear from forballer Hood on this, among many other subjects.
[25:44] Speaker 1: Tony Battiti does go on to say he sees no
[25:47] Speaker 1: scheduling reason, no logistical reason why they couldn't start this
[25:52] Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven. The biggest reason why, and this
[25:56] Speaker 1: is actually what I wanted to bring up a little earlier,
[25:58] Speaker 1: but finally getting to it now. In a very weird sense,
[26:03] Speaker 1: this might be the best pr move for the SEC
[26:06] Speaker 1: in like a decade, because.
[26:08] Speaker 2: After just the way that we're swinging back and forth,
[26:11] Speaker 2: I know, after.
[26:12] Speaker 1: A decade plus during the Saban run of things in
[26:15] Speaker 1: the SEC, when everyone outside of the SEC hated the SEC,
[26:20] Speaker 1: we've now boomerang back to this point where if you
[26:23] Speaker 1: are just hoping that the playoff doesn't go completely off
[26:26] Speaker 1: the rails and go up to twenty four teams, you're
[26:29] Speaker 1: now suddenly squarely in the camp of Greg Saki, who
[26:32] Speaker 1: doesn't seem to one. They'll probably end up there. But
[26:34] Speaker 1: none of this can happen unless there is a handshake,
[26:37] Speaker 1: agreement or probably something on paper between Tony Pettiti and
[26:41] Speaker 1: Greg Sank and the SEC right now is leaning towards sixteen,
[26:45] Speaker 1: which I think is much more palatable, all right, compared
[26:47] Speaker 1: to twenty four. It's definitely more palatable in my view.
[26:50] Speaker 1: I've been a sixteen fan for a long time, but
[26:52] Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to go beyond that. Weirdly, now I'm
[26:55] Speaker 1: finding myself rooting for Greg Saki, So who the hell
[26:58] Speaker 1: knows who we're supposed to root for at this point.
[27:01] Speaker 1: I'm sure there will be much more breaking on this
[27:04] Speaker 1: over the next weeks. And months. For sure, this is
[27:06] Speaker 1: going to be a talking point that goes deep into
[27:09] Speaker 1: the heart of summer throughout the season. We'll do our
[27:14] Speaker 1: best to stay on top of it. I don't know
[27:16] Speaker 1: what else to say.
[27:17] Speaker 2: As always, if you want to send a message, I'm saying,
[27:21] Speaker 2: if not recommending it, not prescribing it, and certainly not
[27:26] Speaker 2: aiding in a betting.
[27:28] Speaker 1: Definitely not aiding at a betting. What I believe you're
[27:30] Speaker 1: about to say.
[27:31] Speaker 2: If you want to send a message, do your own
[27:35] Speaker 2: research on how to illegally pirate and stream these games
[27:40] Speaker 2: in the college football Playoff. Do your own research.
[27:44] Speaker 1: We will not be held liable.
[27:46] Speaker 2: Absolutely not. I am not advocating for this, but if
[27:50] Speaker 2: one were to want to send a message to these
[27:53] Speaker 2: conferences in these TV networks, figure out ways to protect
[27:58] Speaker 2: your computers and devices from mal where and ilicit pop ups, right,
[28:04] Speaker 2: and ilicit pop ups, but also or I mean, you
[28:08] Speaker 2: can go to sports bars, I guess. But if you
[28:11] Speaker 2: want to watch these at home, I'm not gonna tell
[28:12] Speaker 2: you not to watch the sport. It's the beautiful sport,
[28:14] Speaker 2: it's the best sport. Just poke around the darker corners
[28:19] Speaker 2: of the internet.
[28:20] Speaker 1: You can you can probably find something out there.
[28:22] Speaker 2: I haven't looked. I've heard, I don't know. I've heard, I.
[28:25] Speaker 1: Don't know, but I'm you know, there are a lot
[28:27] Speaker 1: of smart computer people out there.
[28:30] Speaker 2: I hear these whispers, TI, and so that that is
[28:34] Speaker 2: an option for how to to make sense of and
[28:38] Speaker 2: trying to digest and try to digest what we have
[28:42] Speaker 2: in front of us, because that's the way you can
[28:45] Speaker 2: speak with your pirated wallet.
[28:48] Speaker 1: Here's what I want though. Okay, so I gave out
[28:50] Speaker 1: the email dress. Everyone knows the email dress by now. Yeah,
[28:52] Speaker 1: I would genuinely be curious, and I'm not We're not
[28:55] Speaker 1: going to judge people. I'm not going to judge people.
[28:57] Speaker 1: If they write in and have a competing view on this,
[29:00] Speaker 1: maybe we'll get something from Tony Patiti. Yeah, but if
[29:04] Speaker 1: you feel like we are wrong here, uh, I would
[29:11] Speaker 1: welcome competing viewpoints on this. Maybe we're just trapped in
[29:15] Speaker 1: our own nostalgia. I know we have a lot of
[29:17] Speaker 1: younger viewers that come online every year that find the
[29:20] Speaker 1: show that are that are, you know, enthusiastically part of
[29:23] Speaker 1: the verballer hood, and maybe it hits different based on age,
[29:26] Speaker 1: based on when you picked up the sport.
[29:29] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[29:29] Speaker 1: I'm just saying soliverbotgmail dot com, write in let us
[29:32] Speaker 1: know if you feel differently. As always, you can leave
[29:35] Speaker 1: a comment out on YouTube spotifighting, where you can leave comments.
[29:38] Speaker 1: We read all those things even if we don't reply.
[29:40] Speaker 1: I just marketplace of ideas here, Dan, I want to
[29:43] Speaker 1: hear the.
[29:44] Speaker 2: Marketplace of ideas. Yeah, if you can somehow get this
[29:48] Speaker 2: game illegally over the air on what was it a
[29:52] Speaker 2: what was the old like played like a game gear
[29:55] Speaker 2: you could get like over the air stuff I don't know,
[29:58] Speaker 2: like I may have may have.
[30:03] Speaker 1: Dabbled with like a hacked fire stick back in the day.
[30:08] Speaker 2: Oh my god, Ty.
[30:12] Speaker 1: Certainly there were no shortage of weird streams that were
[30:16] Speaker 1: out there, most of which have now been shut down
[30:18] Speaker 1: by the federal government.
[30:20] Speaker 2: What else it was?
[30:21] Speaker 1: It was a bit jarring to maybe have gone to
[30:24] Speaker 1: one of those sites and see the emblem of the
[30:26] Speaker 1: Homeland Security Department. Okay, there may be still some ways
[30:33] Speaker 1: that you can, you know, worm around this man made
[30:38] Speaker 1: prison of network television.
[30:41] Speaker 2: You love going to r ls that end in letters
[30:44] Speaker 2: where you're like, is that cameroon? Where is this broadcast
[30:49] Speaker 2: exactly originating? Heezy? Okay? Yeah, we got like that is
[30:54] Speaker 2: BG Bangladesh. Yeah. I always appreciate those and have watched
[31:00] Speaker 2: many a sporting event via that way in my younger days,
[31:03] Speaker 2: and that that is all behind me. But again, do your.
[31:07] Speaker 1: Own research, do your own research, all right.
[31:09] Speaker 2: Do you want to do some ACC vibes? Yes? Absolutely,
[31:14] Speaker 2: May it.
[31:14] Speaker 1: Is still May. It's not gonna be May. We did
[31:16] Speaker 1: an episode last week called Big Ten Vibe Check and
[31:24] Speaker 1: we said things that may happen. Yeah, and I played
[31:29] Speaker 1: that sound like fifteen times. This is now the ACC.
[31:34] Speaker 1: We have gotten a really good response to that show.
[31:37] Speaker 1: People want us to talk about other conferences. We did
[31:39] Speaker 1: do a vibe check on the Big twelve with a
[31:41] Speaker 1: friend John Kurtz. We did do an SEC vibe check
[31:43] Speaker 1: with a good friend, Cole Kubulick. We did the Big
[31:45] Speaker 1: ten one on our own. We got a great response
[31:47] Speaker 1: to it. We decided, what the hell, we'll just do
[31:49] Speaker 1: ACC on our own as well. Right, you came up
[31:53] Speaker 1: with because the pun gun is locked and loaded may
[31:56] Speaker 1: CC Yeah. So I'm assuming it's going to take on
[32:00] Speaker 1: the shape of the episode that we did last week
[32:03] Speaker 1: for the Big Ten. But maybe you got some topics
[32:06] Speaker 1: to throw out with regard to the seventeen odd teams
[32:11] Speaker 1: in the ACC.
[32:12] Speaker 2: So my first one is more big picture, and that's
[32:15] Speaker 2: the ACC may be a still standing mall with an
[32:21] Speaker 2: extremely vibrant chilies, and then just nothing but lady foot
[32:27] Speaker 2: lockers sitting empty the rest of the way. Love a
[32:32] Speaker 2: vibrant chilies, Ty, I've spent many many a night in
[32:36] Speaker 2: a vibrant Chilies. I'm of course talking about the Miami
[32:39] Speaker 2: Hurricanes as a vibrant chilies. You look at how these
[32:42] Speaker 2: teams are or aren't built. You look at the various
[32:45] Speaker 2: questions that so many of these teams have, and it's
[32:48] Speaker 2: almost copy paste. Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot
[32:52] Speaker 2: of offensive line questions. There's no concept of who is
[32:55] Speaker 2: actually going to step up or if anybody's going to
[32:57] Speaker 2: step up along the offensive line. But if people happen
[33:02] Speaker 2: to step up on the offensive line, they could be interesting.
[33:07] Speaker 2: Those are all of the lady foot lockers of the ACC,
[33:10] Speaker 2: it seems. Take your pick with Boston College, Clemson, Duke,
[33:14] Speaker 2: Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, pitt SMU, Syracuse.
[33:20] Speaker 2: All of these teams may have catastrophic offensive line situations ahead,
[33:27] Speaker 2: which makes it nearly impossible to know which lady footlocker
[33:30] Speaker 2: has like the Sabrina ones in stock right, No clue.
[33:34] Speaker 2: I'm looking at a quote here as you mentioned Chili's.
[33:37] Speaker 2: You know, I'm getting geared up for the World Cup.
[33:40] Speaker 2: Are starting center back who just twisted his ankle? I
[33:43] Speaker 2: think will be okay. Chris Richards tem MYO US Team.
[33:46] Speaker 1: US Team Yeah, did an interview towards the latter side
[33:51] Speaker 1: of March talking about how Chili's is what makes US American. Quoteka,
[33:58] Speaker 1: this is beautiful, this is nostalgia, this is really America.
[34:02] Speaker 1: I think that's one of those things that makes US American.
[34:05] Speaker 1: Places like Chili's are a staple. I think they could.
[34:09] Speaker 1: I think they finally could have that stamp on their
[34:12] Speaker 1: passport now that they've had Chili's, and I was happy
[34:16] Speaker 1: for them. I think he's referring to some of his
[34:18] Speaker 1: international comrades who got a Chilcat when they came here.
[34:22] Speaker 1: So be careful what you say. Not a sponsor could
[34:24] Speaker 1: be And.
[34:25] Speaker 2: Again, I don't know this. This is a terrible thing
[34:28] Speaker 2: for the ACC. It is a nice thing. If you
[34:31] Speaker 2: talk about access, and you talk about a conference that
[34:33] Speaker 2: had a duke Virginia Conference championship game last season, two
[34:37] Speaker 2: teams who were clearly not the best two teams in
[34:40] Speaker 2: the conference last year, or at least both of them
[34:43] Speaker 2: were not in the top two. I think there is
[34:48] Speaker 2: a chance that this could make this more entertaining. I
[34:51] Speaker 2: think this is a chance that it could inflate a
[34:53] Speaker 2: lot of these defenses that we have in front of us.
[34:56] Speaker 2: The other connective tissue I saw was outside of Miami,
[35:00] Speaker 2: this may be a conference fully devoid of a complete
[35:04] Speaker 2: and interesting receiver room. Right you look around this conference,
[35:11] Speaker 2: they're like, Okay, they have this one guy, they have
[35:13] Speaker 2: Conduce Robinson. The key is complete.
[35:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, Conduced Robinson's a legit wide receiver one. He's very
[35:19] Speaker 1: totally but a complete receiver room is yeah, that's the thing.
[35:23] Speaker 2: They got three interesting dudes, or they have two interesting
[35:26] Speaker 2: dudes and an interesting tight end. The only other one
[35:29] Speaker 2: outside of Miami I think is CAL. I think Cal's
[35:31] Speaker 2: receiver room is actually good to very good, potentially with
[35:35] Speaker 2: the addition of the transfers that they added. But when
[35:39] Speaker 2: you look across this conference, like NC State lost a
[35:44] Speaker 2: bunch of dudes who started growing into something interesting last year. CJ.
[35:48] Speaker 2: Bailey put up good numbers last year for the most part,
[35:51] Speaker 2: maybe not in the toughest games that NC State played in.
[35:55] Speaker 2: But now they're relying on Miami backups. NC State is
[36:00] Speaker 2: there's a lot of Miami backups to be had. Obviously,
[36:02] Speaker 2: they're a team that you know, when you have that
[36:03] Speaker 2: kind of success, you're not gonna be able to keep
[36:05] Speaker 2: all of your backups and pay them a ton of money.
[36:07] Speaker 2: But if you're looking at connective tissues and what this
[36:11] Speaker 2: conference may be, it may be a conference that has
[36:17] Speaker 2: a lot of chaotic, scramble energy all season long.
[36:22] Speaker 1: There's a lot of turnover too, right, I think, yeah,
[36:25] Speaker 1: bigger picture, if you're trying to do a vibe check,
[36:29] Speaker 1: the analogy to the mall with the vibrant chilies is
[36:32] Speaker 1: about as good as you're going to get. Yes, I
[36:35] Speaker 1: would just say it's Miami and then a big old
[36:37] Speaker 1: shrug for me. You know, we've we've been looking at
[36:41] Speaker 1: preview content now for a couple of weeks and it's
[36:44] Speaker 1: not clear to me who is in that next tier
[36:50] Speaker 1: and what the line is between Tier two and Tier three.
[36:55] Speaker 1: It feels very very blurred, and I can make a
[36:58] Speaker 1: case for a lot of these teams to be kind
[37:01] Speaker 1: of in that next tier down, But Miami, I think
[37:04] Speaker 1: stands alone and then it's a huge like, yeah, it's
[37:09] Speaker 1: a big shrug for me. Honestly, you know, I could
[37:12] Speaker 1: talk myself into some teams and just as easily talk
[37:14] Speaker 1: myself out of somebody like a Clemson or a Louisville
[37:19] Speaker 1: or an SMU or even a Virginia Tech. So I
[37:22] Speaker 1: think that makes for an interesting season. It certainly does
[37:26] Speaker 1: not do us any favors in our nearly twenty year
[37:30] Speaker 1: pursuit of asking ourselves six weeks into the season, Hey,
[37:36] Speaker 1: did Wake Forest play NC State? Yet you know where
[37:39] Speaker 1: every team kind of feels the same and every team
[37:41] Speaker 1: has pretty deep flaws. That tends to feel like there's
[37:46] Speaker 1: a lot of parody in the conference, which could make
[37:48] Speaker 1: for some interesting results. But beyond that, it's it's very
[37:54] Speaker 1: unclear to me who besides Miami steps up to kind
[37:57] Speaker 1: of a challenge.
[38:01] Speaker 2: Oh, I'm all in on the wild card nature, and
[38:04] Speaker 2: this is another may I have. I don't know if
[38:06] Speaker 2: you want to play the sound the Cal Bears may
[38:11] Speaker 2: win five games or ten games. I have down here
[38:15] Speaker 2: for Cal high upside quarterback complete unknown at head coach,
[38:19] Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator. They brought in like younger
[38:22] Speaker 2: recent NFL guys who I think we're both at Oregon
[38:25] Speaker 2: as analysts. Maybe some USC ties there as well, high
[38:29] Speaker 2: end offensive transfers. The schedule ending they have three straight
[38:33] Speaker 2: road games, the buy in there before the Stanford game,
[38:36] Speaker 2: basically NonStop decent quality on this schedule, perhaps other than
[38:41] Speaker 2: Stanford and UCLA, but we don't know, we'll see where.
[38:44] Speaker 2: You know, both of us are somewhat high on UCLA
[38:46] Speaker 2: relatively speaking, they have an extreme home field travel advantage,
[38:49] Speaker 2: an extreme road disadvantage. I think the spectrum of outcomes
[38:57] Speaker 2: for Cal may be the most in interesting spectrum in
[39:01] Speaker 2: the conference.
[39:02] Speaker 1: The run game last year was awful. They got to
[39:05] Speaker 1: rebuild it, and their defense was underrated.
[39:07] Speaker 2: Like there's all these sort of like extremes.
[39:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, defense was underrated, but they lost a bunch of
[39:11] Speaker 1: their better tacklers totally. They've got two first time coordinators,
[39:18] Speaker 1: which will be you know, interesting to chart as we
[39:20] Speaker 1: get into this thing. But they combat that with a
[39:27] Speaker 1: coach in Toshlpoy who got on what the number fourteen
[39:30] Speaker 1: portal class. I mean, he was aggressive. He's known as
[39:32] Speaker 1: being a dogged recruiter. He was very aggressive and bringing
[39:36] Speaker 1: in talent. I've already spoken at length here on this
[39:40] Speaker 1: show about Adam Mohammad, the running back they bring down
[39:43] Speaker 1: from Washington, Washington. Yeah, I think he could be a
[39:47] Speaker 1: force on this offense, especially if they are able to
[39:49] Speaker 1: rebuild that ground game the way I think they do.
[39:53] Speaker 1: He got rave reviews so far the spring and definitely
[39:57] Speaker 1: is one of these guys to watch their stock the
[39:59] Speaker 1: deeper we get into the year. And also JCass, their quarterback,
[40:03] Speaker 1: you know you're one, was really optimistic. It seemed as
[40:09] Speaker 1: though the plan was to have him throw through whatever
[40:13] Speaker 1: kind of challenges they were dealing with, not necessarily run
[40:16] Speaker 1: through it because they couldn't. And so if they are
[40:19] Speaker 1: able to provide a little bit more balance, that makes
[40:21] Speaker 1: them a really interesting team to watch. Sure, and I'm
[40:25] Speaker 1: with you, I like Cal a lot. It's just there
[40:28] Speaker 1: is so much new and so much changing that trying
[40:32] Speaker 1: to lock in on like an eight and four or
[40:34] Speaker 1: a seven and five or a nine and three, it's
[40:36] Speaker 1: going to be impossible. When we do previews, which again
[40:39] Speaker 1: this is not a preview, it's going to be impossible
[40:42] Speaker 1: to really zero in on a good like two or
[40:46] Speaker 1: three game range for the cow Golden Bears, because it
[40:49] Speaker 1: feels like there is a lot here that is just
[40:52] Speaker 1: a huge unknown.
[40:53] Speaker 2: This may be the conference with the again, I'm gonna
[40:58] Speaker 2: try to be diplomatic and be kind here, the power
[41:03] Speaker 2: conference with the most unusual and potentially disappointing roster of quarterbacks.
[41:10] Speaker 2: So we're talking about quarterbacks who have landed in the
[41:13] Speaker 2: ACC after not working out elsewhere, right, right, We're not
[41:19] Speaker 2: talking about the typical power conference situations in which quarterbacks
[41:24] Speaker 2: are ascending to this new conference. That we are seeing
[41:28] Speaker 2: guys come in because they thrived at a smaller place
[41:32] Speaker 2: or thrived somewhere else and are here to show it
[41:35] Speaker 2: off on perhaps a bigger or more interesting stage or
[41:38] Speaker 2: an offense that's better fit for them. You're talking about
[41:43] Speaker 2: like a guy who couldn't start at Notre Dame, a
[41:46] Speaker 2: guy who lost his job at missoo oh here, I'll
[41:49] Speaker 2: go through it.
[41:49] Speaker 1: I'll go through it. Yeah please, Okay. So, Miami's got
[41:53] Speaker 1: Darien Mensa. You mentioned CJ.
[41:55] Speaker 2: Bible. He is ascending.
[41:56] Speaker 1: Yeah right, these are guys that I think we can
[41:59] Speaker 1: count on. We had base level competence. Pitt's got Mason
[42:02] Speaker 1: Heinscheld came on cal Jks. But everybody else all right,
[42:06] Speaker 1: So Christopher Vezina at Clemson, Lincoln, Keenholtz at Louisville, neither
[42:12] Speaker 1: of which has any real experience to link back on.
[42:16] Speaker 1: And Keenholts didn't win a job, didn't win a job
[42:19] Speaker 1: at Ohio State. Ethan Grunckemeyer at Virginia Tech. We have
[42:23] Speaker 1: much more of a sample size for him. He took
[42:25] Speaker 1: over after Aller got hurt, so but was looked at
[42:29] Speaker 1: as backup quality, looked up as backup quality. Ashton Daniels,
[42:32] Speaker 1: who is going to be QB one at Florida State
[42:35] Speaker 1: this year? Okay, Auburn backup, Auburn backup. It's going to
[42:39] Speaker 1: be Bo Prabula or Eli Holstein at Virginia Yep, okay,
[42:45] Speaker 1: both of whom are not going to start at bigger places,
[42:48] Speaker 1: Arguably Alberta Mendoza, who transferred because he probably wasn't going
[42:52] Speaker 1: to get the nod over Josh Hoover. They liked Jould
[42:54] Speaker 1: promise and limited time. They like Alberta Mendoza with what
[42:58] Speaker 1: they've seen so far at Georgia Tech. Another one of
[43:01] Speaker 1: these guys who I think is on big time stock watch.
[43:03] Speaker 1: But again, okay, it's going to be new. We've got
[43:06] Speaker 1: Geo Lopez now transferring away from UNC down to Wake
[43:11] Speaker 1: to rejoin his former offensive coordinator at South Alabama. Robbie
[43:15] Speaker 1: Zel was benched at North Carolina North Carolina.
[43:21] Speaker 2: A bad North Carolina offense from last season.
[43:23] Speaker 1: To be Claire correct, We've got Walker Egot at Duke.
[43:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, who who is scrambling after losing Darien Mensil late.
[43:34] Speaker 1: Yeah, We've got Davis Warren still playing at Stanford transfer
[43:39] Speaker 1: Michigan and Michigan.
[43:41] Speaker 2: Mason mckinsarter but third string, Yeah, d two.
[43:44] Speaker 1: Mason McKenzie from Saginaw State at Boston College, duel threat
[43:48] Speaker 1: guy could be good. And then yes, Steve Angeli, who
[43:52] Speaker 1: in a very limited sample size was was solid for
[43:55] Speaker 1: Sarah Grace and was very solid for Notre Dame and
[43:59] Speaker 1: even more of a limited sample size, but is recovering
[44:04] Speaker 1: from a pretty serious injury, so they need him to
[44:07] Speaker 1: be healthy. So yeah, there's a lot there where if
[44:10] Speaker 1: you can just have like decent quarterback play, that could
[44:13] Speaker 1: be enough to kind of get you into that second tier.
[44:16] Speaker 2: Did we mention Kevin Jennings, Well.
[44:18] Speaker 1: I didn't even mention Kevin Jennings. Kevin Jennings is legit
[44:20] Speaker 1: very good. Yeahah, that definitely very very good. Turns the
[44:23] Speaker 1: ball over too much, you know, there's a little bit
[44:26] Speaker 1: of it. I'm sure they would prefer sure not as
[44:29] Speaker 1: many turnovers, but the talent is undeniable. Yeah.
[44:34] Speaker 2: I guess my broader point is going into a season
[44:38] Speaker 2: with that much at quarterback seemingly going in the wrong direction,
[44:44] Speaker 2: has too many, has too much of like a G
[44:47] Speaker 2: five G six vibe for me, Like, there's a little
[44:50] Speaker 2: bit too much Mountain West east, Mountain East. That would
[44:55] Speaker 2: be a mean thing to call the ACC. But if
[44:58] Speaker 2: you do call it that, please give us the credit
[45:02] Speaker 2: that that's the disappointing thing and potentially thrilling thing about
[45:06] Speaker 2: the ACC that there is the like, Yeah, Bobabula might
[45:10] Speaker 2: not be great, but between weeks three and five he
[45:13] Speaker 2: was super fun.
[45:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, and that might be enough. That might be enough, right,
[45:17] Speaker 1: based on the way this conference is shaken out.
[45:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, the next thing I have down here because I
[45:21] Speaker 2: don't want it to be all bad or all terrific
[45:24] Speaker 2: or all whatever.
[45:25] Speaker 1: Done.
[45:26] Speaker 2: Okay, continue, I think that there is going to be
[45:35] Speaker 2: a surprisingly great team who's not at all great in
[45:39] Speaker 2: this conference because of just one of the Lady foot
[45:43] Speaker 2: Lockers is going to emerge. I think one of the
[45:47] Speaker 2: quietest most interesting hires of the ACC off season is
[45:54] Speaker 2: is it Vince Carries Carries Harris Carris, Yeah, Syracuse at Syracuse, Okay.
[46:03] Speaker 2: I don't know if it's going to be on the
[46:04] Speaker 2: level of like Danny Gonzalez last year at Arizona, where
[46:08] Speaker 2: they find players they hit the portal hard. There is
[46:12] Speaker 2: something to me about hiring somebody who has that much
[46:16] Speaker 2: success consistently, and coming off of a year that Syracuse
[46:21] Speaker 2: had where obviously changes needed to be made after how
[46:25] Speaker 2: much they lost after Steve Angeli went down that I
[46:31] Speaker 2: may be overly hopeful for the initial run of success
[46:35] Speaker 2: that this defense could have barely English, But those are
[46:40] Speaker 2: the types of stories that always break through to me,
[46:45] Speaker 2: that like, they found a guy who can figure out
[46:48] Speaker 2: what to do with what they have. And because as
[46:52] Speaker 2: we mentioned, the roster of quarterbacks in this conference, isn't
[46:56] Speaker 2: incredible that somebody is going to figure out how to
[47:02] Speaker 2: get a bunch of popouts and ground balls, And because
[47:06] Speaker 2: of how entertaining Syracuse can be, that's something that may
[47:11] Speaker 2: be of interest to me.
[47:13] Speaker 1: I don't think it's an easy schedule for Syracuse. It's
[47:16] Speaker 1: not an easy schedule, especially the second half of the
[47:19] Speaker 1: season when they've got well, I guess even a little
[47:24] Speaker 1: bit before that. A home game against Louisville, and then
[47:28] Speaker 1: they're at North Carolina home against SMU, home against Clemson
[47:32] Speaker 1: on the road, at NC State, on the road at
[47:35] Speaker 1: Boston College, and they close out the year home against
[47:37] Speaker 1: Notre Dame. That's a really tough back half of their schedule.
[47:40] Speaker 1: I guess those are the final seven games of the year.
[47:42] Speaker 1: But the Syracuse story is interesting for me because of defense,
[47:47] Speaker 1: and there is a lot of returning production on defense.
[47:51] Speaker 1: There is, there's a ton back and Vince Carras is
[47:55] Speaker 1: a meaningful defensive reset at a school that needs it.
[47:59] Speaker 1: He comes from the old Union stock before, you know,
[48:03] Speaker 1: most recently of Toledo for the last like five seasons
[48:05] Speaker 1: or so, a really good defensive coordinator, and so if
[48:09] Speaker 1: they could get him in there. He's not a blitz
[48:11] Speaker 1: heavy guy. He's not going to go crazy blitz in
[48:13] Speaker 1: the farm. But I think he will meaningfully provide a
[48:19] Speaker 1: change of scenery for this defense. What I keep coming
[48:22] Speaker 1: back to though, are two things. First, on the point
[48:24] Speaker 1: of the defense, is returning production good when the defense
[48:28] Speaker 1: was this bad year ago? Yeah, right, we talked about
[48:32] Speaker 1: this a week ago. That's the first thing. Secondly, so
[48:36] Speaker 1: much of this feels like it pivots on whether or
[48:39] Speaker 1: not Steve Ageli is healthy, because the four game sample
[48:43] Speaker 1: was great. He's really good, but he's coming off an
[48:47] Speaker 1: achilles injury. He's got to be healthy. And this is
[48:51] Speaker 1: a receiver room that lost a lot. So what does
[48:55] Speaker 1: this look like now? I mean, is having a good
[48:57] Speaker 1: enough defense or a better defense against the quarterbacks that
[49:00] Speaker 1: you mentioned and effective enough ephis to put Syahcuse into
[49:05] Speaker 1: a more interesting spot. I don't know, but I still
[49:09] Speaker 1: like the coaching staff. I still like Steve Angelli, and
[49:12] Speaker 1: I do like the Vince Carris higher as well at
[49:15] Speaker 1: the defense, and.
[49:15] Speaker 2: You can get better via the portal up front. On defense,
[49:19] Speaker 2: there are enough defensive linemen out there, especially for a
[49:22] Speaker 2: place like Syracuse. If they're looking at lower levels or whatever,
[49:25] Speaker 2: I think that's they have at least a couple headliners,
[49:27] Speaker 2: or at least one headliner coming up from somewhere. I
[49:31] Speaker 2: want to say, yeah, I don't have it in front
[49:34] Speaker 2: of me, But there is something about there's zero pressure
[49:37] Speaker 2: on this defense. Obviously there's pressure on the coaching staff,
[49:40] Speaker 2: but there's zero pressure to perform on a high level
[49:42] Speaker 2: for this defense. In this moment, you have quarterback health
[49:46] Speaker 2: and this is a conference if nothing else, if you
[49:52] Speaker 2: do something really well and you do the other side
[49:57] Speaker 2: of the ball, okay, maybe even below average can win
[50:01] Speaker 2: eight nine games. Like Georgia Tech didn't have a defense
[50:04] Speaker 2: last year and started eight to zer right, Wake Forest
[50:07] Speaker 2: didn't have an offense and won what nine games? So
[50:12] Speaker 2: if you're going to look somewhere that could do something
[50:17] Speaker 2: interesting coming from a space from last year that was disastrous.
[50:23] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[50:24] Speaker 2: Syracuse is at least a candidate to me.
[50:27] Speaker 1: I mean, the worst team on this outside of New Hampshire,
[50:31] Speaker 1: which is an FCS team, Yeah, and Boston College, which
[50:35] Speaker 1: is the second to last week of the year, sure
[50:38] Speaker 1: per Bill Connelly's sp plus, the worst team on this
[50:42] Speaker 1: is Yukon. And I know Yukon's had some turnover, but
[50:47] Speaker 1: Yukon's had a pretty good team as of late. And
[50:50] Speaker 1: then beyond coach loser coach. I get that, but you
[50:54] Speaker 1: know they're they're trying, right, They're trying.
[50:57] Speaker 2: Yep.
[50:57] Speaker 1: They hired Jason Campbell. He brought in forty year more transfers,
[51:01] Speaker 1: so I don't think Yukon's going to totally bought him out.
[51:05] Speaker 1: And then the next step down per sp plus is Cal,
[51:10] Speaker 1: which could be a pretty good team. We just talked
[51:12] Speaker 1: about Cal maybe win in ten games. So my point
[51:14] Speaker 1: is this, Syracuse is a tough schedule. They obviously have
[51:17] Speaker 1: some issues. Steve Ageli's got to be healthy. Need to
[51:20] Speaker 1: have guys that can that can establish themselves as being
[51:25] Speaker 1: worthy pass catchers out wide and defensively. You know what
[51:29] Speaker 1: Convince Karen spin up with, you know, coming from Toledo
[51:32] Speaker 1: where you led one of the best defenses in the
[51:34] Speaker 1: country a year ago. We'll see.
[51:35] Speaker 2: I'm I'm just telling you. There's also like weird like
[51:38] Speaker 2: if if the ACC we're looking to do some of
[51:42] Speaker 2: the worst teams on the twenty twenty five in the
[51:45] Speaker 2: twenty twenty five league. Some favors Syracuse's sandwichy and let
[51:50] Speaker 2: downy look ahead spots, especially with a weird home field advantage,
[51:54] Speaker 2: is that it's a different type of environment. I'm saying
[51:57] Speaker 2: the schedule actually does them some favors, and that's I
[52:03] Speaker 2: don't know, not nothing for a team that needs favors.
[52:07] Speaker 1: What else do we got here?
[52:11] Speaker 2: Georgia Tech may be due for a big drop. If
[52:16] Speaker 2: there's some stock I'm willing to sell right now, it
[52:19] Speaker 2: might be in Georgia Tech. And that is with saying
[52:23] Speaker 2: I believe Brent Key has done a terrific job there.
[52:27] Speaker 2: I mean, he's all things considered from where that program was.
[52:31] Speaker 2: But the change in coordinator on offense, specifically that they
[52:35] Speaker 2: were able to win the close games that they won
[52:38] Speaker 2: last season before sort of limping to the finish line,
[52:42] Speaker 2: losing the guy who was bringing the offense across the
[52:46] Speaker 2: finish line as much as he could in Haines King
[52:48] Speaker 2: giving everything he had, losing Buster Faulkner, losing the backup
[52:53] Speaker 2: quarterback most familiar with that system. Obviously, Buster Faulkner's out
[52:56] Speaker 2: there anymore, so it matters less counting on an external
[52:59] Speaker 2: core back transfer in Alberto Mendoza, who might be terrific,
[53:02] Speaker 2: it might be amazing.
[53:03] Speaker 1: They loved him in spring, loved him in spring.
[53:06] Speaker 2: But they bring in Alberto Mendoza, and then the word
[53:08] Speaker 2: is that, like, oh, they're really leaning into the run.
[53:12] Speaker 1: The run.
[53:13] Speaker 2: Also, you have to give the offensive line a benefit
[53:16] Speaker 2: of the doubt. It's going to be a new look
[53:17] Speaker 2: offensive line somewhat because of what they've been able to
[53:21] Speaker 2: do thus far during Brent Keyes's time there. But if
[53:25] Speaker 2: we're talking about offensive scheme uncertainty, quarterback uncertainty at a
[53:30] Speaker 2: new place, and not a ton of dependable pieces on defense,
[53:36] Speaker 2: and the universe kind of evening itself out. If you're
[53:39] Speaker 2: able to sneak by a bunch of times in close
[53:41] Speaker 2: games the year before, I think that I want to
[53:44] Speaker 2: say that the win total over under is something like
[53:48] Speaker 2: six and a half. Okay, and you get Georgia every year.
[53:55] Speaker 2: I don't know. If I were looking at a team
[53:56] Speaker 2: to take like a chunky fall from laslast year, it
[54:01] Speaker 2: might be Georgia Tech.
[54:02] Speaker 1: So the new coordinator is George Gottzi. Yeah, coming back, yep,
[54:07] Speaker 1: coming back. George Gottsee was most recently a tight ends
[54:12] Speaker 1: coach with the Ravens. Before that, a tight ends coach
[54:15] Speaker 1: with the Dolphins. Before that, a quarterback coach with the Lions,
[54:19] Speaker 1: was with the Texans, was with the Patriots, was with
[54:22] Speaker 1: UCF way back in the day, but did play quarterback
[54:25] Speaker 1: at Georgia Tech in the late nineties. If you read
[54:31] Speaker 1: up at all about what this offense looks like, it's
[54:34] Speaker 1: a lot of what you were describing, right, It's more
[54:37] Speaker 1: pro style, it's more run first. There's more under center stuff,
[54:41] Speaker 1: play action, heavier tight end sets, things of that nature.
[54:44] Speaker 1: It probably is a bit of a departure from what
[54:47] Speaker 1: we saw a year ago.
[54:48] Speaker 2: With Haines King.
[54:49] Speaker 1: It was very much the engine for this whole thing.
[54:51] Speaker 1: They built the whole offense around him. When he was
[54:53] Speaker 1: out there, it always gave him a chance. When he wasn't,
[54:56] Speaker 1: it was a different story. Even though Aaron Filo was
[54:59] Speaker 1: decent in limited action, it was all about Haines King
[55:02] Speaker 1: of what he could do. So I think I am
[55:05] Speaker 1: with you from the standpoint of anytime there is this
[55:08] Speaker 1: much new, it is a cause for pause or favorite
[55:11] Speaker 1: pet charity. Yes, when you lose Haines King, when you
[55:15] Speaker 1: lose the offensive coordinator, that's a lot walking out the door.
[55:20] Speaker 1: I should also add that it's the thin receiver room.
[55:25] Speaker 1: You mentioned that the offensive line is being rebuilt.
[55:28] Speaker 2: Buddy, it's everywhere in this conference pretty much rebuilt offensive line,
[55:32] Speaker 2: thin and questionable receiver room.
[55:36] Speaker 1: Now, it's also a secondary that profiles is being very
[55:40] Speaker 1: man heavy, which may not necessarily be a bad thing
[55:45] Speaker 1: given the receiver rooms around the conference, which you described
[55:48] Speaker 1: rightfully earlier as being rather incomplete. But you got you
[55:54] Speaker 1: gotta be able to cover the pass, and we've seen
[55:56] Speaker 1: Georgia Tech have some trouble with that as of late.
[55:59] Speaker 1: So what does that defense look like. You know, they're
[56:04] Speaker 1: they're going to try and we hear this all the time,
[56:06] Speaker 1: it will be a much more aggressive attacking defense. They're
[56:09] Speaker 1: going to try and bring pressure and get takeaways. That's
[56:11] Speaker 1: gonna be their new defensive identity now. So whatever, I
[56:14] Speaker 1: think it's entirely possible without Haines king that we see
[56:17] Speaker 1: a bit of a drop off. And I hate to
[56:19] Speaker 1: pin it all on one guy, but I'm looking at
[56:22] Speaker 1: this schedule right now and this is not another one.
[56:24] Speaker 2: Again.
[56:24] Speaker 1: There's a lot of parody in this conference. But they
[56:27] Speaker 1: get Tennessee week two. They're on the road at Virginia Tech,
[56:31] Speaker 1: on the road at Pitt, on the road at Clemson,
[56:33] Speaker 1: on the road at Georgia to close out the year.
[56:35] Speaker 1: It's a bunch of tough games, m hm. And that's
[56:38] Speaker 1: not it. I mean, they go on a stretch here
[56:40] Speaker 1: where they're at Pitt home against Louisville, at Clemson, a
[56:44] Speaker 1: weird sandwich game at home against Wake Forest, who's probably
[56:47] Speaker 1: gonna be frisky again before they've got the clean, old
[56:50] Speaker 1: fashioned hate game to close out the year. Yeah, so
[56:53] Speaker 1: I think it's possible. I think it's very, very possible.
[56:56] Speaker 1: I think we tend to give briank Key benefit of
[56:58] Speaker 1: the doubt because as these that he has done a
[57:00] Speaker 1: good job there. But you don't have to squint too
[57:03] Speaker 1: hard to see a drop coming.
[57:08] Speaker 2: Louisville may be the more realistic. They're not great, but
[57:14] Speaker 2: I just woke up and saw that they're nine and
[57:16] Speaker 2: two type this year now again offensive line and receiver
[57:22] Speaker 2: and in addition a quarterback who hasn't played any meaningful time,
[57:25] Speaker 2: potential superstar running back. There's a lot to like about.
[57:28] Speaker 2: You know where Louisville's defense has been recently. I don't
[57:31] Speaker 2: believe they play Miami.
[57:33] Speaker 1: No.
[57:33] Speaker 2: They schedule is.
[57:34] Speaker 1: They miss Miami Clemson in Virginia Tech, which I think
[57:37] Speaker 1: is nice. It's a it's a very friendly schedule.
[57:40] Speaker 2: So it is a it is a nine or ten
[57:43] Speaker 2: wins schedule if they are actually good, maybe not great,
[57:48] Speaker 2: like this, it feels like a year that's more on
[57:53] Speaker 2: Jeff Brahm not losing a dumb game or two than
[57:56] Speaker 2: ever before. Again we don't know what Lincoln keyenholds is.
[57:59] Speaker 2: We don't know. There are definite holes on this roster.
[58:03] Speaker 2: But when you look at what's new on the roster,
[58:05] Speaker 2: like they're likely going to lose Game one against Ole Miss,
[58:08] Speaker 2: but Villanova. The home road splits are great. SMU at home,
[58:12] Speaker 2: Wake at home, and NC State team with a ton
[58:14] Speaker 2: of questions on the road after that, Florida State on
[58:17] Speaker 2: short rest, but it's at home. They're on the road
[58:19] Speaker 2: at Syracuse, who has again I think, decently high variants.
[58:23] Speaker 2: They get Stanford flying across the country to play them.
[58:25] Speaker 2: You know, I'm at least initially down on Georgia Tech.
[58:28] Speaker 2: I've got a lot of questions about Billy Edwards North
[58:31] Speaker 2: Carolina on the road. We'll see if pitt can finish
[58:34] Speaker 2: better than they did last year. And they get a
[58:35] Speaker 2: year one Kentucky head coach after just demolishing them last
[58:40] Speaker 2: season to finish out the season. So this should be
[58:44] Speaker 2: a year for Louisville.
[58:46] Speaker 1: To quietly win a ton of games. I think so
[58:49] Speaker 1: for it. Maybe a year, Yeah, I think so. I
[58:53] Speaker 1: mean Isaac Brown and Kewan Brown. Yeah, in the backfield
[58:59] Speaker 1: can carry the offense. Now it is offensive line dependant.
[59:02] Speaker 1: But having those guys, especially when you've got, I think
[59:07] Speaker 1: some uncertainty at quarterback, even if you know who your
[59:09] Speaker 1: guys going to be. We just don't have a sample
[59:11] Speaker 1: for Lincoln Keyholds, but we do for those running backs.
[59:15] Speaker 1: And so if they can get the line up stuff,
[59:18] Speaker 1: and if they can run the ball effectively, run the
[59:20] Speaker 1: ball effectively and play good defense, it's probably like a
[59:24] Speaker 1: top twenty five caliber defense, a pretty good defense at
[59:29] Speaker 1: least it profiles that way on paper. So that's not
[59:32] Speaker 1: a bad formula against this conference, against this schedule, where
[59:37] Speaker 1: to the point, I think Louisville could go on a
[59:39] Speaker 1: little bit of a run here where yeah, you wake
[59:41] Speaker 1: up in early November, You're like, wait, what are they?
[59:44] Speaker 1: They're number twelve in the country, They're nine and one.
[59:47] Speaker 2: Okay, I have I have a very positive one here.
[59:54] Speaker 2: My can't set me up like that.
[59:56] Speaker 1: You got to give me a chance to play it.
[59:58] Speaker 2: Excuse me. Miami Notre Dame. Maybe the most heisman propelling,
[1:00:04] Speaker 2: slash eliminating game for quarterbacks in the race on November seventh,
[1:00:12] Speaker 2: a day that includes Dante Moore against Julian saying.
[1:00:16] Speaker 1: Huge day of college football.
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: Well just think about the quarterback matchup. I know, November,
[1:00:20] Speaker 2: heading into the meat of the end of the season.
[1:00:24] Speaker 2: So it's Dante more Julian saying Sam Levitt against we
[1:00:27] Speaker 2: think Keilan Russell, but maybe Austin mack Trinidad Chambliss against
[1:00:30] Speaker 2: Gunner Stockton, Marcel Read against lenoras Sellers even like if
[1:00:35] Speaker 2: you want to go down the list a little, just
[1:00:37] Speaker 2: in terms of like maybe one of these guys shoots
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: up the rankings, Avery Johnson, Drew Mesta, Maker, Bear Bachmeyer,
[1:00:43] Speaker 2: Devin Dan Pierre. I'm not saying all of those dudes.
[1:00:46] Speaker 2: I'm saying pick and choose. But because of Miami's schedule
[1:00:50] Speaker 2: and because of Notre Dame schedule, it feels like that
[1:00:54] Speaker 2: last real opportunity to make a statement. If both CJ.
[1:00:58] Speaker 2: Carr and Darien Mensa are excellent up to that point.
[1:01:03] Speaker 1: That's gonna be the statement game for CJ. Carr. It's
[1:01:07] Speaker 1: gonna have to be. I mean, they are on the
[1:01:09] Speaker 1: road before that against BYU, which would be a big
[1:01:12] Speaker 1: game in its own right. Yeah, but the home game
[1:01:17] Speaker 1: against Miami, especially after the way things went down a
[1:01:20] Speaker 1: year ago, is first start on the road in Miami.
[1:01:23] Speaker 1: They lost that game by three points, Miami goes on
[1:01:25] Speaker 1: to make a run at the national title. So there's
[1:01:28] Speaker 1: a bit of a revenge aspect there that I'm sure
[1:01:30] Speaker 1: will be played up. It is going to be a
[1:01:31] Speaker 1: primetime game. I'm not sure how many primetime games there
[1:01:35] Speaker 1: will be that week, but unfortunately they're probably all going
[1:01:38] Speaker 1: to be at the same time and drive us crazy, right,
[1:01:42] Speaker 1: I think there's a high probability that at least for
[1:01:45] Speaker 1: those two teams that you mentioned, Miami looking to win
[1:01:50] Speaker 1: an ACC Notre Dame, I guess dabbling with the ACC
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: we can put it. Both of those teams are going
[1:02:00] Speaker 1: to have quarterbacks that are very much in that conversation. Yeah,
[1:02:03] Speaker 1: and that's going to be a meaningful game for both
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: of them. With regard to the playoff, you know, certainly
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: for Notre Dame, they got to win that one. They
[1:02:10] Speaker 1: just they have to win that one, I think, to
[1:02:16] Speaker 1: get the revenge that they seek going into this season.
[1:02:19] Speaker 2: Well, it's also it's selling the program. It's selling Notre
[1:02:24] Speaker 2: Dame because of their schedule that there's just not those opportunities.
[1:02:27] Speaker 2: And honestly, it's not terribly dissimilar from Darien Mensa in Miami,
[1:02:32] Speaker 2: who if you were looking at a value pick for
[1:02:35] Speaker 2: the Heisman. I am a non wager, but Darien Mensa,
[1:02:39] Speaker 2: who basically the final chapter, the final gap that he
[1:02:44] Speaker 2: needs to fill, like he just didn't finish the season
[1:02:46] Speaker 2: all that well, wasn't great against the best teams on
[1:02:48] Speaker 2: Duke's schedule. But this is going to be you know,
[1:02:50] Speaker 2: I think you'll get better coaching and you'll have better receivers,
[1:02:53] Speaker 2: but also a similar receiver and going from Cooper Barkatee
[1:02:56] Speaker 2: to Cooper barkate this year, but having what Heisman caliber
[1:03:01] Speaker 2: receiver to throw to in Malachai Tony, having Mark Fletcher
[1:03:04] Speaker 2: in the backfield, having his own defense to lean on
[1:03:07] Speaker 2: and depend on, because Miami's defense should be that good
[1:03:11] Speaker 2: that Darien Mensa. I think more than a lot of
[1:03:14] Speaker 2: these guys could just put up cartoonish numbers. You look
[1:03:17] Speaker 2: at the Ohio State guys could split the vote, and
[1:03:19] Speaker 2: Julian saying Jeremiah Smith CJ. Carr just won't have the opportunities.
[1:03:23] Speaker 2: Darien Mensa won't have the opportunities as well. But I
[1:03:26] Speaker 2: think Mensa might be a little bit more advantaged than CJ.
[1:03:31] Speaker 2: Carr with what he has around him, So he might
[1:03:35] Speaker 2: be the value pick I don't know whether he's like
[1:03:37] Speaker 2: sixth or seventh or whatever in the odds right now
[1:03:39] Speaker 2: Mensa is, but I think that game with those implications
[1:03:44] Speaker 2: is in that specific way more interesting than those other
[1:03:48] Speaker 2: quarterback matchups.
[1:03:50] Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree, And if I could zoom
[1:03:53] Speaker 1: out a little bit, I mean, the Miami story this
[1:03:55] Speaker 1: year will be I think, just absolutely fascinating because because
[1:04:00] Speaker 1: of what they lose, right because of losing Carson Beck,
[1:04:04] Speaker 1: Welhemer Hatam, Carson Beck had a lot of experience. You've
[1:04:09] Speaker 1: got big time stars on both lines that are now
[1:04:12] Speaker 1: off to the NFL. Obviously, the circumstance that brought Mensa
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: to Miami was a bit weird, to say the least,
[1:04:20] Speaker 1: coming down from Duke. But even despite the turnover, Miami
[1:04:27] Speaker 1: on defense projects to be one of the best defenses
[1:04:29] Speaker 1: in the country. In my view, they are still going
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: to be really, really good still of Malachai Tony. So
[1:04:35] Speaker 1: despite the fact that there is a lot changing, there
[1:04:37] Speaker 1: is still a lot there that I think it should
[1:04:40] Speaker 1: leave you feeling and courage, which is part of why
[1:04:42] Speaker 1: they are the Chilis in this conversation. Everyone else is
[1:04:45] Speaker 1: the lady fool Locker. But how it shakes out for
[1:04:50] Speaker 1: the Canes before that Notre Dame game, will there be
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: a situation again where they drop a dumb one, you know,
[1:04:57] Speaker 1: because I've seen that this is not something that they've
[1:04:59] Speaker 1: been able to full kick. They've got Clemson on the road,
[1:05:04] Speaker 1: They've got a home game against Florida State. Those seem
[1:05:09] Speaker 1: to be, at least for my money, the two biggest
[1:05:11] Speaker 1: ones before that Notre Dame game, unless you're counting a
[1:05:14] Speaker 1: home game against pitt which I'm not, But outside of
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: that Notre Dame game home against Duke, home against Virginia Tech,
[1:05:22] Speaker 1: home against Boston College, THO should be three wins from Miami.
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: So it really does build to that game on November
[1:05:29] Speaker 1: seventh and Week ten.
[1:05:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, which does not affect their standings they're standing in these.
[1:05:34] Speaker 1: Is not effect they're standing in the ACC, but I
[1:05:36] Speaker 1: think more nationally in terms of where they're ranked and
[1:05:39] Speaker 1: all that, that will be a very pivotal game for
[1:05:41] Speaker 1: both teams.
[1:05:42] Speaker 2: Not just this is also just as it relates to
[1:05:45] Speaker 2: Miami because of look, the change on the offensive line
[1:05:48] Speaker 2: they should be fine there, and the change on the
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: defensive line, especially at edge bringing in Damon Wilson, they
[1:05:54] Speaker 2: should be fine. There, different guys will step up, different
[1:05:58] Speaker 2: rotational dudes will have more time. This is the first
[1:06:01] Speaker 2: year and I'm not even saying this is a bad thing.
[1:06:03] Speaker 2: I think this is potentially a really good thing to
[1:06:05] Speaker 2: have them like locked in and focused. But this is
[1:06:09] Speaker 2: the first time since Mario Cristabaul arrived where they are
[1:06:12] Speaker 2: the only team considered to be elite and atop the conference.
[1:06:18] Speaker 2: Right in previous seasons, it's like, Okay, Florida State's gonna
[1:06:21] Speaker 2: be good again. They went thirteen and er last year,
[1:06:23] Speaker 2: or Clemson made the playoff last year. Maybe it's Clemson
[1:06:26] Speaker 2: and Miami, but it's Clemson being looked at with what
[1:06:29] Speaker 2: they returned last year. Heading into the season, I was like, well,
[1:06:33] Speaker 2: all signed like you had them, you know, everybody had
[1:06:35] Speaker 2: them in like their top five or their top seven
[1:06:37] Speaker 2: or something, and that didn't work out for Clemson. But
[1:06:40] Speaker 2: this is the first season which it's just a vibrant
[1:06:43] Speaker 2: Chili's at the mall. There's no Texas Roadhouse, there's no
[1:06:47] Speaker 2: Red Lobster, there's no California Pizza Kitchen. There is just
[1:06:51] Speaker 2: the sizzlin Fahidas and baby back ribs that are aligned
[1:06:58] Speaker 2: with Miami's hope you ever have.
[1:06:59] Speaker 1: Like Chili does, like a grilled corn on the cob thing.
[1:07:02] Speaker 2: Do you ever have that? It's on the cob. It's
[1:07:05] Speaker 2: not like in a bowl or a cop.
[1:07:06] Speaker 1: It's on the cob, but it's super tender. It's like
[1:07:09] Speaker 1: one of the best things I've ever had in my life.
[1:07:11] Speaker 1: The chili is.
[1:07:12] Speaker 2: There like a seasoning on there that's especially good.
[1:07:16] Speaker 1: I mean, I think you can. I don't know.
[1:07:18] Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't think mine did.
[1:07:20] Speaker 1: I'm going back away.
[1:07:21] Speaker 2: It's so Chili's corn on the cob in your recollection,
[1:07:24] Speaker 2: so good, top tier.
[1:07:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, it could have been just it could have just
[1:07:27] Speaker 1: been that moment in my life where that was the
[1:07:30] Speaker 1: best thing ever. But I aspire to grill my corn
[1:07:35] Speaker 1: on the cob in the same way.
[1:07:36] Speaker 2: Okay, we usually did. I went a good amount of
[1:07:39] Speaker 2: times in college, and we usually did burgers for the
[1:07:43] Speaker 2: most part. I think we did burgers at Chili's, and
[1:07:46] Speaker 2: I think we were all pretty satisfied with them.
[1:07:51] Speaker 1: Flip on over to Virginia Tech. I know you've been
[1:07:56] Speaker 1: listening these out.
[1:07:57] Speaker 2: Do you have a may for Virginia Tech?
[1:07:59] Speaker 1: I want I want you to look at Virginia Tech. Schedule,
[1:08:01] Speaker 1: and I want you to answer the question scale of like,
[1:08:05] Speaker 1: I don't know zero to one hundred percent certainty that
[1:08:09] Speaker 1: Virginia Tech makes the College Football Playoff certainty confidence. How
[1:08:17] Speaker 1: confident would you be if I presented that ridiculous proposition
[1:08:20] Speaker 1: to you?
[1:08:21] Speaker 2: So, in how many simulations of the twenty twenty six
[1:08:23] Speaker 2: season does Virginia Tech with this schedule.
[1:08:25] Speaker 1: With this schedule, what percentage of the time do they
[1:08:27] Speaker 1: make the College Fotball Playoff? Look at the sky. I
[1:08:29] Speaker 1: want you to look at the schedule.
[1:08:31] Speaker 2: Okay, they realistically could start four and oh in September. Yeah,
[1:08:38] Speaker 2: vm I ODU Maryland in September is tough, Ti'm September Maryland.
[1:08:44] Speaker 2: You got to handle that pass ruts Boston College on
[1:08:47] Speaker 2: the road. So not unthinkable that they start out the
[1:08:50] Speaker 2: season going four and oh. They host Pitt short week
[1:08:55] Speaker 2: on a Friday night, and they travel to CALS. So
[1:09:00] Speaker 2: I say, best case scenario, they're probably five and one.
[1:09:04] Speaker 2: They're split in those games, So best possible scenario, I
[1:09:07] Speaker 2: don't think they're starting six to zero. And then they
[1:09:09] Speaker 2: finish out their season in a difficult manner. So Georgia
[1:09:14] Speaker 2: Tech at Clemson at SMU Stanford at home. So at Stanford,
[1:09:17] Speaker 2: traveling across the country at Miami and hosting Virginia.
[1:09:22] Speaker 1: A few seconds, how many simulations, how many simulations they
[1:09:26] Speaker 1: make the playoff?
[1:09:27] Speaker 2: So you're talking, you probably have to go ten and
[1:09:29] Speaker 2: two yep, because Virginia Tech has a non conference schedule
[1:09:33] Speaker 2: that's not terribly impressive, so they're not going to get
[1:09:36] Speaker 2: any sort of benefit of the doubt at nine to three.
[1:09:39] Speaker 2: So a ten and two Virginia Tech means they drop
[1:09:43] Speaker 2: and like are impressive. They're dropping at Miami and then
[1:09:46] Speaker 2: probably one of at Clemson at SMU, maybe Pitt or
[1:09:50] Speaker 2: at cal So two of those, it means Grunk is
[1:09:53] Speaker 2: probably really good B plus a minus they find answers
[1:09:57] Speaker 2: at receiver. It is increasingly clear that Brent Prye is
[1:10:02] Speaker 2: a defensive coordinator and not much else. Out of one
[1:10:07] Speaker 2: hundred simulations, I think they make the cossetball playoff.
[1:10:10] Speaker 1: Eight times eight. Wow, Okay, what do you say? I mean?
[1:10:13] Speaker 1: The reason I asked that is because we've been talking
[1:10:15] Speaker 1: about the acc being in a bandoned ball with a
[1:10:19] Speaker 1: vibrant chilis. Yeah, and in the land of lady footlockers,
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: the one that sells a couple shoes is king or
[1:10:27] Speaker 1: I guess in this case, Queen, I don't know trying
[1:10:30] Speaker 1: to work with this the Sabrina ones. But you get
[1:10:32] Speaker 1: my point here, right, You get my point if Virginia
[1:10:35] Speaker 1: Tech can somehow find a way to bubble up. You know,
[1:10:37] Speaker 1: we don't really know what to make of Virginia Tech.
[1:10:40] Speaker 1: I think we've got ample data on James Franklin and
[1:10:45] Speaker 1: we know that, especially now in this era of everybody
[1:10:49] Speaker 1: transferring over, you can reboot a program pretty quickly. So
[1:10:52] Speaker 1: I think Virginia Tech would be pretty good. The question
[1:10:55] Speaker 1: is how good? And the question is to what end
[1:10:58] Speaker 1: does that transplant effort actually work? Which is the question
[1:11:02] Speaker 1: about a bunch of places around college football, including his
[1:11:04] Speaker 1: old school, Penn State. We had that same conversation. We
[1:11:07] Speaker 1: did have that same conversation. But if I'm looking at
[1:11:10] Speaker 1: this schedule and if we genuinely feel like outside of Miami,
[1:11:14] Speaker 1: who is on this schedule eight? But outside of Miami
[1:11:17] Speaker 1: there's just a bunch of teams that kind of feel
[1:11:19] Speaker 1: the same and they don't really separate from the pack
[1:11:22] Speaker 1: for one reason or another. Is there not a case
[1:11:25] Speaker 1: to be made for Virginia Tech having a bunch of guys,
[1:11:27] Speaker 1: which technically, if you do the returning production calculation, they've
[1:11:31] Speaker 1: got a lot of returning production. They've got guys on
[1:11:33] Speaker 1: this team who have played a lot of snaps. So
[1:11:36] Speaker 1: I think it stands to reason that that number should
[1:11:38] Speaker 1: be higher than eight percent. I'm not saying twenty five percent, okay,
[1:11:43] Speaker 1: but I think with this schedule and with the uncertainty
[1:11:45] Speaker 1: around the conference, give them fifteen. I'll double that number, okay.
[1:11:52] Speaker 1: I don't think it were I don't think it's completely
[1:11:54] Speaker 1: beyond the realm of possibilities.
[1:11:57] Speaker 2: They were twenty points worse than O tou last year.
[1:12:02] Speaker 1: I know, I know.
[1:12:03] Speaker 2: So we got to solve that. First, solve the monarchs.
[1:12:06] Speaker 1: I'm not predicting this will happen, no, I know, but
[1:12:10] Speaker 1: theater of the mind here on the show as we
[1:12:12] Speaker 1: are in late May, m hmm, just wondering, just wanting
[1:12:17] Speaker 1: your thoughts.
[1:12:18] Speaker 2: I think even putting them in that simulated conversation is
[1:12:24] Speaker 2: an insane tactic on your parts. But I also dig it.
[1:12:29] Speaker 2: I think it's intriguing, it's arresting. Yeah, I think they
[1:12:34] Speaker 2: will be by the end of the year thrilled to
[1:12:39] Speaker 2: be in that six seven win range.
[1:12:41] Speaker 1: Let me ask you another question, Dan, let's stick with
[1:12:45] Speaker 1: the mall thing here. Okay, is there a surprise Orange
[1:12:50] Speaker 1: Julius in this crop of other sixteen teams?
[1:12:56] Speaker 2: I think there will be a pop up Orange Julius.
[1:12:59] Speaker 2: I think there will be a Week nine, maybe a
[1:13:00] Speaker 2: Week nine and ten Orange Julius.
[1:13:03] Speaker 1: Like, if you are picking from the rest of this pack,
[1:13:07] Speaker 1: perhaps a surprise team that pops up and gets a
[1:13:11] Speaker 1: lot of love. Is there a team that your mind
[1:13:14] Speaker 1: goes to first outside of Cal I know you mentioned earlier.
[1:13:18] Speaker 2: By the way, can we call it the Chili's Conference
[1:13:20] Speaker 2: jacc a Chili's Conference? Yeah, yeah, ah, Chili's Chilies, not many? Yeah.
[1:13:28] Speaker 2: Is there a team that like has the ability to
[1:13:31] Speaker 2: have a magic couple weeks?
[1:13:34] Speaker 1: Because like I look at this all right, I'll answer first, Okay,
[1:13:37] Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'll just go rapid fire through Boston College.
[1:13:40] Speaker 1: No chance they've got ted Rufe. I'm out. Yeah, Cal,
[1:13:43] Speaker 1: we already described Clemson. If Clemson were to bubble up,
[1:13:46] Speaker 1: I don't think it would be a huge surprise, so
[1:13:47] Speaker 1: I don't even count them as part of this. Maybe
[1:13:49] Speaker 1: with Christopher Vezina and his seventy one pass attempts, that
[1:13:52] Speaker 1: would be a bit of a surprise, but Clemson has
[1:13:55] Speaker 1: been so good for so long that would we can't
[1:13:57] Speaker 1: realistically put them as part of this conversation, Duke, no
[1:14:01] Speaker 1: chance Florida State. Florida State bubbling up would be something,
[1:14:05] Speaker 1: but Florida State's I think more of a traditional power,
[1:14:08] Speaker 1: so even if they got good, to me, it wouldn't
[1:14:10] Speaker 1: be a huge surprise. Right. Georgia Tech, I don't see it.
[1:14:15] Speaker 1: Louisville I could make the case, but again they've been
[1:14:18] Speaker 1: pretty good. NC State, North Carolina, no way, Pitt I
[1:14:23] Speaker 1: don't see it. SMU made the playoffs two years ago.
[1:14:26] Speaker 1: Stanford I don't see it. Syracuse maybe like Syracuse. Maybe
[1:14:31] Speaker 1: Virginia runs it back, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest. I think
[1:14:36] Speaker 1: my point in bringing this up is I am struggling
[1:14:38] Speaker 1: to figure out who that team is, right. I could
[1:14:41] Speaker 1: definitely make a case for a team going on a
[1:14:43] Speaker 1: run like Week eight through Week ten, But in terms
[1:14:46] Speaker 1: of a team genuinely going out there and surprising us
[1:14:48] Speaker 1: the full season through and having a magical ten and
[1:14:51] Speaker 1: two season, much the way you described with Cal, I'm
[1:14:56] Speaker 1: struggling to find other teams that maybe could fit that mold.
[1:14:58] Speaker 2: It might be NC State eight is what I would say.
[1:15:03] Speaker 2: So the Virginia game is not at Virginia, right, where
[1:15:08] Speaker 2: are they playing that game? Yeah, that's a neutral Syche game. Yeah,
[1:15:11] Speaker 2: the Virginia game, it's Rio in Rio to open up year. Yeah,
[1:15:14] Speaker 2: so that's weird. Either one of those teams can win it,
[1:15:17] Speaker 2: and it'll be a win if nobody's brother gets in
[1:15:19] Speaker 2: a fight in the parking lot, right, So that's a
[1:15:23] Speaker 2: win and it's in and of itself. They get a
[1:15:25] Speaker 2: kind of retooled Vanderbilt, Richmond app State. They get Louisville
[1:15:29] Speaker 2: and Wake at home. So the first half of their
[1:15:31] Speaker 2: schedule is weird, if not kind of good.
[1:15:35] Speaker 1: Oh, this is a great schedule, right.
[1:15:38] Speaker 2: Stanford is on the road and it's short week, but
[1:15:40] Speaker 2: not short week because it's after a bye. They get
[1:15:43] Speaker 2: Cal coming across the country. They get a duke team
[1:15:46] Speaker 2: that might be decently down. They get a Syracuse team
[1:15:49] Speaker 2: that likely still has a ways to go.
[1:15:51] Speaker 1: They're on the road at Florida State second to last
[1:15:54] Speaker 1: week of the year, who may not be with Mike
[1:15:56] Speaker 1: Norvell at that point, depending how things go.
[1:15:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, I will see, but Florida State has a ways
[1:16:02] Speaker 2: to go. I think themselves in terms of where they
[1:16:05] Speaker 2: see themselves in the program. And then they have North
[1:16:08] Speaker 2: Carolina to finish out the year in the rivalry spot,
[1:16:11] Speaker 2: and that's a week after North Carolina travels to Virginia.
[1:16:14] Speaker 1: So no Miami, SMU, Clemson Pit, Virginia Tech or Georgia
[1:16:21] Speaker 1: Tech on resting. That's really good.
[1:16:24] Speaker 2: Wow, And look I missed that again. It's offensive line,
[1:16:29] Speaker 2: it's receiver. We'll see how the transfers without a ton
[1:16:31] Speaker 2: of playing time work out. I think Jojo Schrader is
[1:16:33] Speaker 2: one of them coming over from Miami to NC State.
[1:16:37] Speaker 2: We know CJ. Bailey is at least pretty good, and
[1:16:41] Speaker 2: Dave Dorn has coach teams that. Look, I'm not going
[1:16:43] Speaker 2: to fall for ten and two Dave Dorn Again, there's
[1:16:46] Speaker 2: a reason his ceiling has been where it's been. But again,
[1:16:49] Speaker 2: there's a vacuum. If you're asking about an Orange Julius,
[1:16:52] Speaker 2: not quite on the substantial level of a Chili's. But
[1:16:55] Speaker 2: if you're asking about an Orange Julius, if your starting
[1:16:58] Speaker 2: point is experienced quarterback and coachu has won a bunch,
[1:17:03] Speaker 2: I'm okay with NC State there.
[1:17:05] Speaker 1: I love this new world that we're in now with
[1:17:07] Speaker 1: the ACC we could probably do a full episode.
[1:17:11] Speaker 2: Being a Chili's conference.
[1:17:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, Chile's right where we define them all in an
[1:17:17] Speaker 1: acc sense where we compare teams to stores. I would
[1:17:20] Speaker 1: love to look, who's a kiosk where like, look, they're
[1:17:22] Speaker 1: not good, but I'll stop by and check out this
[1:17:24] Speaker 1: weird remote control helicopter for a.
[1:17:26] Speaker 2: Couple of minutes. Probably, Yeah.
[1:17:27] Speaker 1: North Carolina?
[1:17:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, uh yeah, North Carolina. If their defense, I mean
[1:17:32] Speaker 2: they lose. You know, I think the linebackers were sort
[1:17:34] Speaker 2: of the heartbeat of that defense last year. But if
[1:17:36] Speaker 2: is it Jordan's ship the receiver who's back? Like, I
[1:17:39] Speaker 2: think they could string together at least an intriguing kiosk
[1:17:42] Speaker 2: of a week or two. Boston College is a mess.
[1:17:45] Speaker 2: They're just they're they're not going to play any defense. Yeah,
[1:17:49] Speaker 2: and they're banking on a D two quarterback. They're going
[1:17:51] Speaker 2: with the tie strategy. You'll see how it works out.
[1:17:53] Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not even going D two quarterbacks. I'm
[1:17:55] Speaker 2: all about you know. You said D two like three
[1:17:59] Speaker 2: weeks ago. No, I said, if you're in charge, you
[1:18:02] Speaker 2: said D two an FCS. You said small school.
[1:18:05] Speaker 1: Okay, well I just learned about Saginaw State, So yeah,
[1:18:09] Speaker 1: uh no, we should we could we could do that
[1:18:11] Speaker 1: episode And if you have suggestions, celiverblegmail dot com, let
[1:18:15] Speaker 1: us know what store Pit is in your book. I'd
[1:18:19] Speaker 1: love to hear from you.
[1:18:21] Speaker 2: What would be Pitt in this situation where like you
[1:18:24] Speaker 2: kind of know what you're getting in Pit. We know
[1:18:26] Speaker 2: that there's upside with Mason Heinschel again offensive line and
[1:18:30] Speaker 2: receiver questions. Defense was ahead of the offense last year.
[1:18:33] Speaker 2: I believe you know what you're getting. I guess with
[1:18:38] Speaker 2: uh with Paton Ardoozy specifically, it could be a lens
[1:18:42] Speaker 2: Crafter's a little bit like they're serving a purpose, right,
[1:18:47] Speaker 2: They're they're they're helping to round out the options at
[1:18:51] Speaker 2: this mall. Yeah, but you're not excited by the lens crafters.
[1:18:56] Speaker 2: I'm trying to think who is the fad team or
[1:18:58] Speaker 2: Sunglass Hut.
[1:18:59] Speaker 1: Who's who's the fad team in the ACC this year?
[1:19:04] Speaker 2: I think the cow.
[1:19:05] Speaker 1: You think cal Cal is like a Hollister or something
[1:19:08] Speaker 1: that plays into recent trends.
[1:19:12] Speaker 2: I think there's flash to cal which we haven't been
[1:19:13] Speaker 2: able to say in a long time. But because Jks is,
[1:19:17] Speaker 2: you know, he loves bombing it downfield and taking chances
[1:19:20] Speaker 2: they've improved offensive skill, they're recruiting well, and they'll continue
[1:19:25] Speaker 2: to recruit well, I think under Tosh. And they have
[1:19:28] Speaker 2: the weird geographic situation right where teams, you know, travel
[1:19:33] Speaker 2: all the way west and they put a scare into them.
[1:19:36] Speaker 2: At the very least it's a couple of years ago
[1:19:37] Speaker 2: with that Miami game, I think that they would be
[1:19:41] Speaker 2: in my mind, they're like my look, it's not my favorite,
[1:19:46] Speaker 2: but they're fun to look at. No, did you shop
[1:19:51] Speaker 2: at Hollister American Eagle Havebercrombie back.
[1:19:54] Speaker 1: In the day? I did. Yeah, I think I bought
[1:19:56] Speaker 1: one of those like puka shell necklaces from Hollister back
[1:19:58] Speaker 1: in that day, I believe, before going down to Ocean City, Maryland. Yeah, Okay, Clemson,
[1:20:04] Speaker 1: don't you know Clemson.
[1:20:05] Speaker 2: I don't think is a store.
[1:20:06] Speaker 1: I just think they're they're they're a franchise that's been
[1:20:10] Speaker 1: in the same in the same space in the mall
[1:20:15] Speaker 1: for a long time and has never swapped out the wallpaper.
[1:20:18] Speaker 1: You know, it's just starting to show a lot of age.
[1:20:21] Speaker 2: I think we're looking at both Clemson and Florida State
[1:20:24] Speaker 2: because of how much money they're paying Dabbo and Mike
[1:20:26] Speaker 2: Norvell as stores that nobody ever goes to that They're like,
[1:20:30] Speaker 2: is that is that a money launder? Is that a
[1:20:32] Speaker 2: front of some kind?
[1:20:33] Speaker 1: Is that a front?
[1:20:34] Speaker 2: Right? They're just selling expensive greeting cards and nobody is
[1:20:37] Speaker 2: going in like they're not sharper images sharper images. You're
[1:20:44] Speaker 2: just tool around him like what is this massage or
[1:20:46] Speaker 2: what is this chair? Whatever? Yeah, but it's yeah, they're
[1:20:49] Speaker 2: selling like very strange oil paintings and nobody's ever in there.
[1:20:57] Speaker 2: Like it's a lot of like Centaur, although I think
[1:21:01] Speaker 2: I would go in there just to check it out.
[1:21:05] Speaker 1: But you're not gonna buy anything. And that's the point, you're.
[1:21:07] Speaker 2: Not gonna buy anything. But yes, I think Combine they're
[1:21:09] Speaker 2: making like twenty twenty one million dollars Mike Norvell and
[1:21:11] Speaker 2: Dablosweeney this year. So that there's Swarovski.
[1:21:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just sending I just bought a gift
[1:21:17] Speaker 1: at Swarovski.
[1:21:18] Speaker 2: Okay, well maybe not. You're your classier than I am.
[1:21:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, uh okay, we're gonna need to unpack
[1:21:25] Speaker 1: this more.
[1:21:26] Speaker 2: There's your MACC.
[1:21:28] Speaker 1: There's your MACC. Soliverble at gmail dot com. Hit us up,
[1:21:32] Speaker 1: let us know your thoughts on any of what we
[1:21:34] Speaker 1: described here today, be it Tony Patiti and where things
[1:21:36] Speaker 1: seem to be headed for the college reball playoff or
[1:21:39] Speaker 1: the ACC the UH Chili's conference. Thank you talk to
[1:21:43] Speaker 1: us about the mall whatever you're into again, Soliverble Mountain
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[1:21:56] Speaker 1: Tyler's been killing it, man, Oh, he's He's doing such
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[1:22:25] Speaker 1: his new offensive coordinator, which we did not even discuss here,
[1:22:29] Speaker 1: but Bobby Petrino and Bill Belichick is a very odd couple,
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[1:22:42] Speaker 2: Out definitely for all the goodies that were giving you
[1:22:47] Speaker 2: all the good stuff I even mentioned for ballers dot com.
[1:22:51] Speaker 2: For ballers dot com, there you go.
[1:22:53] Speaker 1: Tell the find folks what they can get over ballers
[1:22:55] Speaker 1: dot com real quick. I always do it.
[1:22:56] Speaker 2: Okay, So if you sign up to support us via
[1:23:00] Speaker 2: our patreon on verbalers dot com, Tie will make every
[1:23:04] Speaker 2: new subscriber a ham and cheese sandwich. Yes, and I
[1:23:09] Speaker 2: took that out of the five dollars tier. Is that
[1:23:12] Speaker 2: that was more of a twenty twenty fourth thing?
[1:23:14] Speaker 1: That was more than fourth thing?
[1:23:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so scratch the ham sandwich thing. You said
[1:23:18] Speaker 2: deep tissue massage?
[1:23:21] Speaker 1: Was that what it was that was at the uh
[1:23:25] Speaker 1: fifty dollars tier?
[1:23:26] Speaker 2: I think that was the fifty dollars or a deep
[1:23:29] Speaker 2: tissue massage from Tye Hill, the brand for fifty you.
[1:23:33] Speaker 1: Have to pay for the travel to get me there,
[1:23:36] Speaker 1: but the tip dollars.
[1:23:37] Speaker 2: This is like the actual language I think of sexual professionals,
[1:23:43] Speaker 2: like you have.
[1:23:44] Speaker 1: To pay for my travel and then I will give
[1:23:46] Speaker 1: you a don't like what of water here? Although maybe
[1:23:50] Speaker 1: it should be something harder with the way you're talking.
[1:23:52] Speaker 2: I don't know, you're talking about charging for massages and
[1:23:55] Speaker 2: you have to pay for travel. Okay, uh, that's you.
[1:24:00] Speaker 1: No.
[1:24:01] Speaker 2: If you go to forballers dot com, you have access
[1:24:03] Speaker 2: to our discord, which is an incredible college football community
[1:24:06] Speaker 2: of huge college football fans. You have access to our
[1:24:09] Speaker 2: bonus shows that we do every week all season long
[1:24:12] Speaker 2: and all year long off season long as well. The
[1:24:15] Speaker 2: access to the games is great, the pick'm pool all
[1:24:18] Speaker 2: season long. We're adding new games as well. We do
[1:24:21] Speaker 2: a fun game in the winter time called what Bolbingo Like.
[1:24:24] Speaker 2: There's just a ton to go through behind the scenes
[1:24:28] Speaker 2: with the community of forballers dot com.
[1:24:31] Speaker 1: I'm going to spin up Grand Total.
[1:24:33] Speaker 2: Early access AD free. I don't know, it seems great.
[1:24:36] Speaker 2: I'm spinning up Grand Total again.
[1:24:37] Speaker 1: We go through all the Grand Totals back and do
[1:24:40] Speaker 1: the over under this release game. So yeah, a lots
[1:24:43] Speaker 1: to look forward to. That's for Ballers dot Com. Go
[1:24:45] Speaker 1: and check that out. It's a great way to support
[1:24:46] Speaker 1: what Dan and I do. I already mentioned the newsletter,
[1:24:49] Speaker 1: already mentioned follower subscribe and the ratings and reviews and
[1:24:51] Speaker 1: all that stuff, so we do not need to play
[1:24:54] Speaker 1: that back. Thank you one and all so much for downloading,
[1:24:57] Speaker 1: for supporting what Dan and I do here on the show.
[1:25:00] Speaker 2: Show.
[1:25:00] Speaker 1: We will be back next week in some capacity. We'll
[1:25:03] Speaker 1: keep you posted.
[1:25:04] Speaker 2: On that front.
[1:25:05] Speaker 1: But in the meantime, do enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.
[1:25:10] Speaker 1: Wherever it is, you find us, wherever it is, we
[1:25:12] Speaker 1: find you. As always, you know the drill, stay.
[1:25:14] Speaker 2: Solid, peace and good luck with your corn time.
[1:25:19] Speaker 1: I aspire for that corn, I do, I really do.

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